Kirby Star Allies: Friend Hearts are Magic (REMASTERED)

Chapters

Chapter 1: Another Planet? (Kirby)
Chapter 2: Body of Stone, Heart of Gold (Rocky)
Chapter 3: Equestriabound (Gim)
Chapter 4: Hyness Meets Her Highness (Hyness)
Chapter 5: A New Guest Star (NESP)
Chapter 6: Interrogation and a Field Study (Kirby)
Chapter 7: Meta Knight's Intermission (Meta Knight)
Chapter 8: The Good Samaritan (Kirby)
Chapter 9: Rock-Solid Bond (Rocky)
Chapter 10: Seeing Double (Kirby)
Chapter 12: Star Road to Canterlot Castle (Kirby)
Chapter 13: Dreamland Away From Dream Land (Kirby)
Chapter 14: The Plan (Kirby)
Chapter 15: Gimmicks and Grandeur (Gim)
Chapter 16: The Name That He Knows (Kirby)
Chapter 17: Meta Knight's Intermission Returns (Meta Knight)
Chapter 18: The Master Maestro's Equestrian Debut (Meloetta)
Chapter 19: A Rock–Solid Culture (Rocky)
Chapter 20: Manehattan Scouting In Progress (Roborygon)
Chapter 21: Light Rises and Darkness Falls (Kirby)
Epilogue: The Adventure Is Far From Over...
Prologue: A Mistake (Kirby)
Chapter 11: Emergency Meeting (Kirby)

Chapter 1: Another Planet? (Kirby)

“...hush, everyone, I think it’s waking up.”

I can take a fall like a champ, but I must’ve been pretty worn-out after going all the way to the Divine Terminus and beating up that electric mage girl, because I was out cold when I landed. “Mnh…” I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I felt like I just woke up from a dream… Huh, maybe that was all just a dream. I probably just dreamed all that about my adventure with those Friend Hearts and that space station.

But I remembered that I fell asleep against a tree. I didn’t feel a tree behind me, so that must not have been a dream. Which meant that I really did take a nasty fall. “...Poyo?” And that I still needed to defeat that wizard guy. There was something I needed to figure out before doing anything, though… Where was I?

To answer that question, I got up and took a look around. I was in a green field of some sort, kind of like Green Greens. I always loved just having fun and relaxing in Green Greens, although Whispy Woods would challenge me to a battle from time to time. Not that I have any problems with the occasional battle. It keeps my fighting skills sharp in case King Dedede wants to challenge me again.

“Dude, aren’t you gonna pay us any attention?”

“Poy?” I turned around, and I just couldn’t look away. Before my very eyes were seven creatures I had never seen before on my home planet: six cute-looking equines and a young purple dragon. They looked kind and friendly, although I knew from experience that looks can be deceiving sometimes. But I chose to look past that and just greeted them with a smile and a wave. “Hi!”

The yellow one with wings and a pink mane squealed with joy. “Oh my gosh, you’re such an adorable little creature!” She galloped over and squeezed me tight. I didn’t mind, though, because getting squeezed doesn’t hurt me too much. But getting squashed flat? Yeah, that hurts. "I sure hope that fall didn't hurt you too badly. Want me to take you to my place? You can get to know some of my animal friends."

“Hold on, Fluttershy!” the purple one with a horn and wings said. “It could be a dangerous creature. We have no idea what it is! We should at least learn something about it before trying to approach it.”

The orange one with a cowboy hat replied, “Well then, why don’t ya try asking it stuff? Research is what ya do best, after all. Plus, it already proved that it can talk by saying hi.”

“Good idea, Applejack.” Suddenly, a purple aura surrounded me and made me float. “Okay, little guy, you’re coming with me and Spike,” the purple one said as she trotted off with the dragon, the purple aura carrying me along.

“Wait!” the pink one tried to catch up. “What’re we gonna do?”

The purple one looked back at the others with a smile. “You can continue your picnic without me. If things go well, I should be back in a couple of minutes.”

“And if things go bad?” the blue one with a rainbow mane asked.

“...That shouldn’t happen.”

“If you insist, Twilight.” The white one with a horn and a purple mane used her magic to pick up a sandwich. At first I was confused because they didn’t look like meat-eaters, but I realized sandwiches don’t have to have meat. “Now, where were we?”

Chapter 2: Body of Stone, Heart of Gold (Rocky)

“...?” I wasn’t sure what just happened. All I did know was that I fell. And I do love a good fall. Why is that? Because I am a Rocky. Sliding, falling, being calm and patient… That is what we Rockys are known for.

I opened my eyes. I was… underwater. From the looks of it, I must have landed in a river of some sort. Creatures from the Pop Star galaxy such as my kind aren’t normally good at being underwater, besides aquatic creatures like Blippers, Squishys, and Barbars. The reason why we don’t do well in water isn’t that we can’t swim. It’s just hard to see while underwater, so most land creatures on Pop Star could end up wandering around for a long time if they fall in a body of water.

But not me. When the pink hero Kirby befriended me, he bestowed upon me a scuba mask to wear. That way, I no longer had to worry about water getting in my eyes. He did the same thing for everyone else he befriended, even Gim. Why he would give a robot a scuba mask, I don’t really know. Could it be that the tinted lens of Gims are especially vulnerable to water?

“...!” My thoughts were interrupted by something reaching into the water. I thought about trying to get away, but I realized it was probably just a Grizzo looking for some Blippers to feast on. Knowing that, I closed my eyes again because I could probably use the rest. Taking a spear to the forehead can hurt, even if you’re made of stone.

But then, something grabbed me. And it was definitely not a Grizzo. They have short limbs, while this thing had a long, shaggy appendage. I kept my eyes closed, hoping to trick it into thinking that I was just a rock.

It didn’t work. I was still wearing my hat. I should have known that I had no chance at fooling any nearby creatures into thinking I was nothing more than a rock.

I opened my eyes in resignation. The first thing I saw was the creature that was holding me: a large, dark brown mammal that reminded me of a Grizzo without a headband. It was drenched in water. “...” I must have accidentally splashed it when I had fallen into the river.

Much to my surprise, the animal simply dismissed me with a chuckle and walked away. Was it normal for a living rock to randomly fall into a river in this place? Did it think I was just playing a practical joke on it? Oh, right, Rockys are known for falling.

I felt footsteps coming this way. “...!” My instincts took over, and I changed into one of my stone forms. If I wasn’t rushed, I would have taken on a natural formation such as a Star Block or a Metal Block to avoid bringing attention to myself. Unfortunately, I made a terrible mistake. When I used Stone Change, I took on the form of a statue of Kirby, and it was too late to go back and change it. Not wanting to attract more attention than I already had, I stood still and waited to see what happened next.

This next creature that approached was more intriguing than the first one. It was a yellow quadruped with a pink mane and tail, and it also had wings. “Sorry I took so long. Our picnic got disrupted by--huh? What’s that?” As expected, she immediately took note of my presence. Or, rather, the presence of my Kirby statue form. “I don’t remember this being here before I left. Is it another of Discord’s antics?”

An invisible door opened, revealing an amalgamation of various creatures. It took a look at me. “Uh, no, it wasn’t me this time, Fluttershy. Although I must say, it has the air of a legendary hero who has taken down a bunch of dark villains.” Then it closed the door.

“...?” ...Who the heck was that? I daresay it looked crazier than Hyness acted.

“That’s strange. Discord didn’t do it, and I’m pretty sure Harry or Angel Bunny couldn’t have made this. Maybe Rarity could have, but I don’t think she’d be able to sculpt this in such a short time.” The pink-maned creature, apparently named Fluttershy, put a hoof to her chin. “But now that I’m looking at it, this kind of looks like that round pink thing that fell from the sky…" She gasped. "Oh! Maybe that pink thing knows something about this. I should probably get to Twilight’s castle to ask it.” She used her wings to fly away.

“...!” A round pink thing? She must have been talking about Kirby! And if what she said was right, Kirby was at the castle of someone named Twilight. Following a bridge to a path, I hurried to figure out where this castle was while trying not to attract attention. Hopefully it was one of those castles that are easy to find, like a villain’s lair in most forms of visual media...

Chapter 3: Equestriabound (Gim)

Rebooting… 10 percent… 25 percent… 75 percent… 99 percent… All systems fully rebooted. Who knew a reboot every once in a while could be so refreshing? Unless you're a robot like me, you probably didn't know until now.

Activating auditory sensors… “Heads up, everypony. This thing could be dangerous!” Why is it that robots are almost always portrayed as evil? There are good robots too!

Time to find out who the uninformed speaker is. Activating visual monitors and locomotion motors… Having landed on my front, I pushed myself to my feet using my gloved hand. Three beings were detected: To the left, a yellow quadruped with a red mane and tail, and a large pink bow. To the right, a white quadruped with a horn and a purple-pink mane and tail. Directly in front, an orange quadruped with wings and a purple mane and tail.

The orange one spoke aggressively. “It’s looking at us! No doubt it’s ready to attack us!” It spread its wings and took an offensive stance. “I’ve got this!”

Engaging vocal output module… “Hold it!” I parried its right hoof with my hand, much to its fear. “I ain’t here to hurt any of you! Unless you’re evil, in which case…” Retracting my gloved arm into my body, I drew my Sizzle Yo-Yo and pulled a Walk The Dog, making it hover slightly above the wooden floor so as to not burn my current location down. “I’m gonna walk this hot dog right into your faces! You ain’t gonna taste anything hotter!”

“Taste? Dog? Now that don’t make a lick of sense,” the yellow one responded, the others confused as well. “That thing looks nothing like a dog, and why would we even eat a dog in the first place?”

Evaluation: all three subjects had flat teeth, suggesting a vegetarian lifestyle. “Oh, my bad! Didn’t see that you were vegetarians. See, this bad boy is called a yo-yo.” I flicked my wrist to make the yo-yo go down the string, then flicked it back up to return the yo-yo to its original position. “You can pull off all sorts of cool tricks with yo-yos, including one called Walk The Dog.”

The white one questioned, “Isn’t that dangerous? I mean, it’s on fire!”

“Yo-yos aren’t usually on fire, so they're safe for the most part. But this is a special occasion.” I raised my yo-yo in the air, causing a heart-shaped glow to come from it. “My pal Kirby added fire to this one to make it a Sizzle Yo-Yo. With it, I can light hard-to-reach flammable stuff like fuses!”

“It’s still dangerous, though.”

I sighed. “I know that, but like I said, this is a special occasion. I learned recently that my home planet was in danger! Kirby came to my home planet Misteen to recruit me to help him and two other helpers save the universe from a mad wizard who’s trying to free some kind of Dark Lord! But…” I recalled a scene I stored in my memory bank. “The young psychic NESP just had to try out that new spell of his, and now I’m somewhere I don’t know anything about... Heck, I might as well be on a planet thousands of light-years away from the villain's lair!”

“Did you say spell?” the yellow one asked. “Maybe you should go ask Twilight Sparkle about that. She and her friends were having a picnic today in Ponyville Square, but chances are you’ll find her at her castle. Once you leave our clubhouse, just head down the road and you’ll reach the square. As for Twilight’s castle, ya can’t miss it!”

“Cool, thanks!” I started to leave, but something came to my mind. “Uh, you’re not gonna question the fact that you’re helping a robot that randomly showed up in your clubhouse…” I looked up. “...by means of the roof? Sorry about that, by the way.”

“No worries.” The orange one raised her right wing towards the yellow one. “Apple Bloom can fix that up just fine. She’s pretty good at working with wood!”

“And to answer your question…” the yellow one, Apple Bloom, confidently remarked, “...nope, not one bit. Pony, dragon, or robot, we always help others!” She stepped forward. “I’m Apple Bloom!”

The white one stepped forward. “I’m Sweetie Belle!”

The orange one stepped forward. “I’m Scootaloo! And together, we’re…”

All three showed their hindquarters, which each had a shield symbol on them. At the same time, they shouted, “The Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“It's a pleasure to meet you all! Guess I should introduce myself too. Just like fiction makes it out to be, robots of my kind are each given a number based on the order in which they were constructed.” I pointed a thumb towards myself. “I’m GM-2375, the 2,375th in the GM-series robots, but you can refer to me as my kind are informally called, Gim.”

The crusaders shook my hand one by one. “Howdy!”

“Nice to meet you!”

“Good luck saving the day, dude!”

“From what I’ve heard about Kirby, we’re almost guaranteed to win. But I still appreciate the morale boost, Scootaloo!” I gave one final wave before leaving the clubhouse. Man, we need more creatures like those three! ...Whatever they are. There was no information on their kind at all in my database.

Chapter 4: Hyness Meets Her Highness (Hyness)

“...GRACE US GLORIOUSLY, DARK… Juh?” This was… an unexpected turn of events. We were in a dark forest of some sort. Before that flash, we were at the Divine Terminus. Was it some sort of… teleportation spell? Perhaps it was time for us to practice teleportation…

“You! Are you the source of that horrific ear-splitting shouting?” Suddenly, to our surprise, we were surrounded by a dark green aura and levitated against our will. We were turned toward a black, hole-filled quadruped with a single horn on its head and dark green wings like those of Beetley. “I demand that you identify yourself and state your business in my presence. If you’re not here for a good reason, then leave this instant!”

Unflinching, we stared down the mysterious creature. “Our name… is Hyness. We have no business here… Release us at once… for we must return to the Divine Terminus… to accomplish the duties of our ancestors.”

The creature scowled. “I see no reason to let you go. For all I know, you’re a hero who could try and defeat me at any moment.”

“You believe that we may be... a hero…?" We paused. "That... could not be further from the truth... A more fitting term... would be servant… We had gone to the Divine Terminus… to rescue our master… to revive… the Dark Lord.”

The creature dropped us from its magical grasp. “Dark Lord? You have my interest.” It smirked. “Please, go on.”

We nodded. “Our generals and us… We were rebuilding the Jamba Heart… that was the prison of the Dark Lord. Everything was going fine… until they showed up. A pink thing... And his colleagues... A Gim, a Rocky, and a NESP. The four defeated our strongest general, Zan Par. She was next to useless. We explained to the heroes… why we were trying… to revive the Dark Lord. But that NESP…” Our blood boiled. “THAT JAMBLASTED NESP! He paid no respect to our monologue and cast a spell of some sort, and now we're in a forest we know nothing about! RUDE! There must be a way to return to the Divine Terminus and rebuild the Jamba Heart! There MUST be! We cannot rest until--”

The creature silenced us with its hoof. “I’ve heard enough. I will assist you.”

Our mind was at ease. “Good. How will you—”

“But!” the creature snapped, slowly retracting its hoof from our face. “I require your assistance as well.” It pointed us towards the exit of the woods, towards a dirt road leading to a peaceful town. Curious, we approached the town, but the creature dragged us back into the woods. “I have been trying to conquer the entirety of Equestria for moons, but my plans keep getting thwarted by a certain group of ponies who live in the town you saw with your own two eyes, Ponyville. And I, Queen Chrysalis, used to rule over the Changeling hive, but they betrayed me!" She stomped her hoof. "They were so easily convinced by a ragtag group of good creatures to share love instead of feeding on it! If you help me to conquer Equestria, I will help you find a way to the Divine Terminus, wherever that is. And do not even think of backstabbing me, or else…” She bared her sharp fangs. “I will not hesitate to drain all of your love energy.” Her eyes narrowed. "Now, will you join me... or not?"

“A tempting offer…” We gave it some thought. Then we shook Queen Chrysalis' front hoof. “We accept. You have a plan, we suppose?”

“We've no need for a plan at the moment. A true ruler knows how to start from scratch." The changeling queen's horn flashed, and a dummy shaped like a quadruped similar to her appeared. "First, show me what you can do…”

Chapter 5: A New Guest Star (NESP)

Well, this probably had to be the worst time and place to try that new spell I learned. Why? Because as soon as I cast the spell, the yellow girl woke up. “Ugh, my head…” She got up and looked around in a panic. “What?! I thought there were four of you! And what happened to Lord Hyness?!”

“But there are four of us! Isn’t that right, everyone…?” I searched the area for my three friends. “Oops…” Did my spell affect them too?

“Oops? So you’re saying this IS your fault!” She pointed her spear at my neck, causing me to gasp. “Tell me what you did, and don’t spare me the details!”

“Okay, okay, just don’t hurt me when I tell you!” I told her everything. “After Hyness slapped you away and started going on a rant about being banished, I got tired of the lecture and figured it was a good time to try out a new spell I learned.” I sighed. “But I should’ve listened to what the Gim told me. I think I must’ve screwed up the spell, because it ended up teleporting my friends and Hyness off to someplace that I only intended for Hyness himself to end up.”

She raised an eyebrow. “And that place is?”

I raised my hands defensively. “Even I don’t know! All I had to do for the spell was imagine where I wanted the target to end up, then cast the spell and chant the incantation to send them there. I didn’t have anywhere in particular in mind, just somewhere that a group of heroes would be able to take him down with the power of friendship. Since I was too inexperienced, I accidentally sent Kirby, Gim, and Rocky there along with Hyness.”

“Wow.” She deadpanned, lowering her spear. “You really are inexperienced. I’d be mad at you, but now I’m just disappointed. At least he has just been teleported somewhere and not killed by your spell. There’s still a chance to bring him back… And to the same extent, your allies.” She groaned. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but it appears we’ll have to work together to figure out where they are and how to rescue them.”

“I wish I was skilled enough to sense where they are using my mind, but I’m not.” I put a hand to my chin. “We’ll need some help from somewhere… I got it!” I turned to the stars and cupped my hands around my mouth. “Come to us, Warp Star!”

A few seconds later, a big yellow star came to our position. The mage and I got on, me leading it. We soared off into space, where we could even see Pop Star. “Well, I suppose I should properly introduce myself to you,” the mage said. “My name is Zan Partizanne, and I am the leader of the Three Mage-Sisters. I’ve seen your kind around before, so you don’t need to tell me about yourself.”

“Nice to meet you, Zan.” I pointed at our destination as we approached: a white, floating island with a white palace of some sort on it. “There it is! A Dream Palace!” We touched down and entered it.

“A Dream Palace?” Zan asked. “Considering all the white in here, it doesn’t look much like a dream to me.”

“That isn’t why this place is called a Dream Palace.” I floated to the center of the room, and I looked up at a floating, golden staff with a heart at the end. “This is a very special staff. It’s called the Dream Rod, and Kirby uses it to summon special friends of his, Dream Friends. I’m not talking about common helpers like Burning Leo, Chilly, and Blade Knight. I’m talking about one-of-a-kind people like Bandana Waddle Dee and Meta Knight!”

“So, you’re going to use the power of the Dream Rod to summon a friend of this Kirby you speak of?”

“Yeah, and I’ll have you know that ‘this Kirby’ is the pink ball who kicked your butt twice.” I took the Dream Rod in my hand and held it up high. “I call on the power of the Dream Rod! Please, bring us a hero that can find the Star Allies!”

The Dream Rod flashed brightly, then it disappeared. Then, with a mechanical music cue, a strange gray robot appeared. It floated above the ground and had yellow highlights, purple lights for eyes, a black antenna, and yellow fingerless arms and a tail.

Its optical lens focused on me. “An Esper? I have not seen one of your kind since the Haltmann Works Company invaded Pop Star!”

“Actually, we go by NESP now,” I replied. “And this is Zan Partizanne, the leader of the Three Mage-Sisters.”

“Zan Partizanne?” The robot made electronic noises. “My database says that she is a villain, but I am willing to look past that. Greetings to you two!” It pointed towards itself. “My full name is Roborygon Mk. Z, but feel free to simply call me Roborygon. Might I be of any assistance to you?”

“Yes, please.” I held my hands together to plead to Roborygon. “I made a terrible mistake while journeying with Kirby and his other two helpers. See, when we got to Hyness, he started going on some insane monologue. I was bored and couldn’t understand a thing he said, so I tried out a new spell to warp him somewhere that a group of heroes could beat him up with friendship.”

“A new spell?” He facepalmed. “Let me guess: it was too difficult for a young psychic such as yourself, so it went awry and caused not only Hyness but also Kirby and his other helpers to warp to that place?”

I lowered my head in shame. “I’m sorry…”

He lifted my chin up. “Don’t be. Everyone makes mistakes. Now tell me: was one of Kirby’s helpers a robot? This information should help me locate the Star Allies.”

I nodded. “A Gim, to be precise. If I remember right, his model number was 2375.”

"Gim..." Roborygon's eyes turned into stars. “How nostalgic! It's been many years since Kirby's encountered one of them! Anyway, you said the Gim was model GM-2375? Excellent! I’ll send an electrical impulse tuned to that make of the series of robots commonly known as Gim. That way, I can pinpoint his location!” Concentrating intensely, he sent an invisible wave of electricity all around.

About twenty seconds later, his eyes widened. “Yes! I’ve found his location! Thank the stars they weren’t sent to another dimension, or the impulse wouldn’t have reached him.” He headed towards the exit. “I’m off to help them get rescued. It’ll probably be quite a while before I get back, though. Wish me luck, even though I don’t believe in luck.” He changed form into a mini-jet and took off.

Zan and I exchanged looks. She asked, “Now what do we do?”

I answered, “I guess we wait for him to come back.” Silence followed. “So… wanna head back to Jambandra? I wouldn’t mind a tour.”

Chapter 6: Interrogation and a Field Study (Kirby)

Twilight, as I heard the white unicorn call her, put me in a chair in one of the biggest rooms of the castle: the library. There wasn't a single wall in the room that wasn't lined with books from top to bottom.

“Poyo…” I exclaimed with wonder.

She smiled. “You like it? The library is one of my favorite rooms in my castle. The only room I’m in more often is my bedroom.” I couldn’t blame her. I don’t know many people who don’t like to sleep.

She took out a short stack of paper. “I’ve compiled a list of things to ask you about…” She handed the young dragon the stack of paper and a feather tipped with ink. “But that isn’t it. That’s just for Spike to write down more questions that may arise.” Then she took out a few sheets of paper and another ink-tipped feather. “These are the questions I already have for you. Are you ready?”

Starting off with just a few questions? That didn’t really make much sense. I mean, I’m not even from around here! “Uh… Poyo.”

“Good! Okay, here’s the first question…”

“Um, Twilight?” Spike asked. “What makes you so sure that was a yes? Seriously, ‘poyo’ is pretty much the only thing we’ve heard it say besides hi. It was pretty hesitant too.”

“Relax, Spike. It’s probably just nervous because this is the creature’s first time getting asked a lot of questions.” Twilight looked back at her papers. “As I was saying, here’s the first question. What’s your name, if you have one?”

I smiled. It looked like she was starting off with questions that I could answer in a word or two. And since I can’t talk very well, that was a blessing. “Kirby!”

“Kirby? That’s an interesting name. Question two: Where are you from?”

I looked up towards the sky. “Pop Star.”

“Pop Star?” Raising an eyebrow, Twilight took a moment to think. Then with a laugh, she answered, “No, Kirby, I didn’t ask what you wanted to be when you grew up. I asked you where your home is.” She levitated a book from the bookshelf and opened it for me. It was open to a picture of a big city, like one you’d read about in a story set in medieval times. “This used to be my home, Canterlot.” She put the book away. “What’s the place you were born in? Your hometown?”

I shook my head. “Pop Star. Planet.”

“A planet called Pop Star?” Spike asked. “Honestly, that doesn’t sound familiar to me. Twilight, what about you? You ever heard of a planet that's known as Pop Star?”

“Neither have I. And you know what that means?” Twilight beamed. “I’m going to learn about a new planet!” Spike promptly started writing down things on the stack of paper. “But before that, I’ve got to ask the rest of the questions on this list. Question three: What kinds of things did you like to do back in your home land?”

I started to reminisce. Back on Pop Star, the citizens lived their lives eating, having fun, and chilling out. “Food… music… sleep…”

“I see. Now for the fourth question. What do you like to eat?”

I resisted the urge to drool. I had three favorite things to eat, and they were all very, very yummy. “Tomato! Watermelon! Cake!”

Twilight licked her lips. “Those are all really tasty! I’m getting hungry just thinking about them!” Her tummy rumbled. "...Oh, right, I skipped the picnic to ask you these questions."

“Should I head down to Sweet Apple Acres to pick up some apples?” Spike asked.

A light bulb seemed to go off in Twilight’s head. “Actually, I think I’ll go instead.” She took the stack and feather from Spike and put them in a saddlebag which she put on. “Spike, take care of the castle while I’m gone, okay?”

“But what about Kirby?”

“Kirby’s coming with me.” I got out of my seat and followed Twilight. “I’m going to use this opportunity to see how he reacts to various stimuli. In other words, I’m conducting a field study.”

The walk to the square was nice and calm. It was just like taking a nice walk down a country road like the ones in Vegetable Valley and Green Grounds. Add some Star Blocks, Waddle Dees, and the occasional fruit, and I’d feel right at home!

I looked to my left, and I saw something that I was barely familiar with: a huge building that rivaled Twilight’s own castle. I didn’t remember seeing a building like it back on Pop Star. What was it for? “Poyo?”

Twilight followed my gaze. “Oh, that’s the School of Friendship. My friends and I put it together in order to teach not just ponies, but all creatures about friendship!”

School… I remember that word. My friends told me about going to school. It was a place where you could learn all sorts of important stuff that could help you in life. I might have to take a lesson or two at the School of Friendship someday so I can learn how to be an even better friend. And I’m already a great friend, because I’ve forgiven a bunch of villains who aren’t fully evil, such as Daroach and Magolor. “Whoa…”

Some more walking later, and we finally reached the square. Ponies were out doing their thing, and most of them would stop and look at me for a second before carrying on. Everypony else just didn’t pay me any attention. For me, that was kind of a good thing because I didn’t want to either scare ponies away, get attacked by any who thought I was an invader, or get chased by ponies who want to hug me.

We passed some houses, but one immediately got my attention: a two-story house that looked like it was made of gingerbread. For some reason, music was coming from it. I pointed at the house. “Poyo! Poyo!”

“You want to stop here at Sugarcube Corner? Okay.” Twilight seemed to have picked up the music. “Sounds like Pinkie Pie’s throwing a party for someone. I wonder who it is?”

“Poyo?” I took a peek through the window. I quickly ducked to avoid a confetti cannon blast. I peeked through again. I wasn’t surprised to see the pink pony, who must’ve been Pinkie Pie. But I was surprised to see one of my friends. I put on a big smile. “Gim!”

Gim stopped partying and looked at me. “Aw, snap! It’s you, Kirby!” He turned to Pinkie. “Hey, guess who came looking for me!”

Pinkie’s gaze met mine. “Your name’s Kirby? I love that name!” She motioned towards the door. “What’re you waiting for? Come in and party with us!”

Without delay, I came right into Sugarcube Corner. I high-fived and low-fived the resident of Misteen while Twilight followed me in. “Poyo!”

“You know this… robot?” Twilight asked, amazed at seeing a real-life robot and surprised to see that I’m acquainted with a robot.

“He sure does!” Gim replied. “I’m GM-2375, but my species goes by Gim. Kirby came to me on my home planet Misteen because he needed to put together a super-cool team to keep this evil dude named Hyness from awakening a Dark Lord.”

“But if you’re trying to stop a bad guy, what are the two of you doing here?”

“We ended up here because of a dumb mistake made by one of Kirby’s helpers. A young psychic boy called NESP. He tried out a new spell, and the next thing I know, I’m falling out of the sky and into a clubhouse of some sort.” Gim chuckled. “At least I got to know three young creatures who dubbed themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

“So, the two of you came here because of a magical accident?” Twilight put on an optimistic smile. “I may be able to help you. But right now, I’m heading to Sweet Apple Acres with Kirby so we can grab a bite to eat. I skipped a picnic to get to know Kirby.”

“Oh, okay,” Pinkie Pie said. “Remember that if you have some time and wanna join Gim’s crash-into-clubhouse party, we’ll be right here!”

Finally, after a long trip, we made it to Sweet Apple Acres. The place reminded me of Whispy’s Forest, but with a farm and no talking trees.

Outside, the orange pony Applejack was bucking the trees to knock down some apples. She saw us. “Twilight? Little pink thing? I thought y'all were at the castle!”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, but my rumbling belly reminded me that I skipped the picnic. I had Spike look after the castle while I took Kirby--” She patted me on the head. “--with me here to get some fresh apples. Mind if we join you?”

“Well, that’s alright with me.” Applejack asked me, “Say, Kirby, do you have any apple trees where you come from? If not, I can show ya how I get apples out of them.”

I nodded. “Yeah!” Before the ponies could say anything, I ran towards the nearest tree and grabbed onto it. Then I started climbing, until I was in the leafy top. Once I was there, I started shaking the apples out of the tree. When I had shaken all the apples down, I jumped down with a proud smile. “Poyo!”

Applejack laughed. “That’s one way to harvest apples. With that kind of ingenuity and fancy tricks, no doubt you’d surprise anypony who meets you!”

Surprise? Yeah, I sure have surprised a bunch of creatures in my life, and I wondered if Applejack or Twilight would be surprised by my skills. Twilight’s been with me for a little while, so I figured using a power of mine wouldn’t mess up her nerdy brain too much. I looked up at Twilight with a smug grin.

“...What?” Twilight began to sweat. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I dunno, Twilight.” Applejack took a step back and held onto her hat tightly. “But I got the strangest feeling that we’re gonna get our minds blown. Get ready to have a meltdown!”

If this didn’t cause the nerd pony to have a meltdown, I wouldn’t know which of my powers would. But first, I set a few of the fallen apples aside for one or both ponies to have after they freak out or go unconscious.

I made sure that the rest of the apples were in my line of fire, and then I used my most iconic power… my Inhale! I opened my mouth really big, and a vortex came from it and caught all the apples. One by one, the apples popped into my mouth. Gulp!

Applejack stared at me in shock. “Whoa, nelly… And I thought I had a huge appetite when I was a filly! I bet this little guy could rival Pinkie Pie if they had a race to eat the most, right Twilight? ...Twilight?”

“Poyo…” I rubbed my head apologetically. I knew I would cause somepony to have a meltdown, but I didn’t expect Twilight to faint from one of my most basic powers!

Chapter 7: Meta Knight's Intermission (Meta Knight)

Kirby came so far on his journey as a Star Warrior. He freed me from the influence of that dark heart, defeated the generals at the Jambastion, and amassed a team of helpers to aid him as he worked his way towards the source of the problem. I would have followed him to the villain, but Pop Star would be left vulnerable to another invasion. I stayed behind to keep watch over Kirby’s home planet.

“...Hm?” One of the items in my belt rocked. I reached into my belt and took out a dark green Dusk Ball. I threw it, and from it came a black, mammalian Pokemon with white fur and a curved black horn. “What is it, Absol? Have you sensed a disaster?”

Absol pointed with his right paw, north towards space. “Absol ab!”

“A disaster in the depths of space? Do you think the location of the disaster could be… the true base that the villains fled to?”

Absol nodded.

“Then let’s go!” I returned Absol to his Dusk Ball. I transformed my cape into wings and prepared to take to the stars. I drew my signature golden sword Galaxia, ready for combat. “When going to a villain’s base, one must always be prepared for the worst possible scenario.”

“And that is why I am coming with you.” A blue, bipedal vulpine Pokemon jumped to my side. “Something terrible could have happened to Kirby.”

I acknowledged the Pokemon. “Lucario, Master Pokemon of Aura? What brings you here to the planet Pop Star?”

“I have a mutual relationship with Kirby. As you know, he cannot talk very well. Being a Pokemon who can read minds, I translate his thoughts for people around him. But just a little while ago…” Lucario furrowed his eyebrows. “Kirby’s aura warped a long distance away. I want to find out where he ended up.”

“Very well, then.” I flew by Dedede’s castle and brought back a Warp Star for Lucario. “Use this to fly through the cosmos. We are going to the last known location of Kirby.”

Lucario got on the Warp Star. “That means we are headed for…” He pointed north where Absol pointed. “The Divine Terminus!”

I followed him to our destination. “The Divine Terminus, you say? How do you know that is what it is called?”

Lucario held up his right paw, which was emanating a blue, flame-like energy. “Because I can read the minds of beings through their aura, and there are a few beings there that know the name of the location.” He then frowned. “I also sense a very dark aura at the deepest part of the Divine Terminus.”

"A very dark aura?" My eyes narrowed. “All the better reason for us to make our way there. The cause of the dark aura must be stopped before it's too late. Before it wreaks havoc on our home universe.”

Upon landing at the Divine Terminus, we saw two creatures there: a blue-robed NESP, and a yellow-robed mage. I recognized the mage, for I fought alongside Kirby to defeat her in the Jambastion.

“Zan Partizanne!” I prepared my sword for combat. “Stay away from the NESP, or else we will be forced to battle you. I will only ask you once… Do you yield?”

“I’ve had enough problems for the day.” Zan moved a meter away with lightning-like speed. “I choose to yield for now. Not that I was a threat to NESP for the time being.”

“Not that you were a threat?” I felt suspicious of that comment, but I turned towards NESP to see what he had to say. “Tell me, is Zan Partizanne telling the truth?”

NESP replied, “She is, sir. Besides, the real threat is Hyness. But here’s the thing…” He told us about how he tried a teleportation spell, which ultimately warped not only this so-called Hyness, but also Kirby and his other two allies to an unknown location where he had intended for a group of heroes to defeat Hyness. NESP used the Dream Rod to summon Roborygon, who flew away to ensure that the three Star Allies were not in danger. “So Zan Partizanne saw no reason to fight me because we needed to work together to rescue Hyness and the Star Allies. We’re not gonna duke it out until they come back. Or maybe not at all, because she knows how strong we are.” He held up his hands, expecting me to strike him out of rage. “I’m so sorry for making such a big mistake and screwing up that teleportation spell… Please forgive me…”

I clenched my fist in frustration before letting out a sigh. “Be at ease, NESP. I'm not upset with you. You had good intentions, meaning for a more-professional group of heroes to defeat him and make him completely incapable of reviving the Dark Lord.” I put a hand to my chin. "But that mistake of yours begs the question of where exactly Kirby and his other two helpers have been sent to. I worry about that, even though Roborygon went to find them."

Lucario patted NESP on the back. “At least you went to the Dream Palace and used the Dream Rod to summon that skillful ally of Kirby’s to go and find him. That means we just have to wait for them to return somehow. And because Hyness wasn’t the only one teleported to that place, the odds that he will take a beating are excellent.”

“But that’s what I hate about NESP’s stupid mistake!” Zan raged. “If Hyness goes down, he’ll never be able to rebuild the Jamba Heart and summon the Dark Lord!”

“Calm down, Zan!” NESP said, recoiling from Zan's angry words. But then he boldly floated towards her, understandably scowling. “Do you really think that reviving a Dark Lord is such a good idea? It’ll end all life, even your own!”

As the two argued about summoning the Dark Lord, Lucario and I looked out into the depths of space. I had full faith that the young Star Warrior would be able to adapt to his new surroundings and put an end to the threat that is Hyness and any other villains that the Star Allies may face. He's defeated all of his opponents up to this point, so why would he fail to claim victory now?

Author's Note

Curious about what Meta Knight meant when he called the Lucario the master of aura? Then allow me to explain.

In the stories I made leading up to Friend Hearts Are Magic, the Pokemon Expedition Society from Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon was formed by a group of heroic Pokemon, the same species as those in the game, excluding Jirachi, who sleeps for a thousand years at a time and therefore would be next to useless as a member. But in addition to those Pokemon, there are more members: the deliveryman Delibird, the teacher Hawlucha who runs the P.E.S. (abbreviation for Pokemon Expedition Society) school, and the transportation expert Hoopa.

But that's not all! They also recruited several Pokemon that each excel in a specific type or stat, who are referred to among the P.E.S. members as Master Pokemon. For instance, one Master Pokemon is a Charizard that expertly uses fire attacks and can melt the hardest boulders with his flames, and another is a Gengar whose specialty is scaring others and trapping evildoers in nightmares.

Lucario is an interesting case, in that he doesn't specialize in a specific type or stat. Instead, his specialty is aura. Aura is within all living things, and he can expertly manipulate it and read the aura of others, allowing him to essentially read minds and emotions.

Chapter 8: The Good Samaritan (Kirby)

“Poyo? Poyo?” I tried a whole bunch of stuff to try and wake her, but nothing worked. The closest I ever got to waking Twilight up was pulling on her horn, and the only thing it did was glow a little. “Oh…”

“I, uh…” Applejack was pretty surprised, judging by the look on her face. “I dunno what to say. What you did was the sort of thing that Pinkie Pie would do, and Twilight’s put up with her antics a ton of times. But for some reason she passed out when she saw you do the same thing. I don’t get it.”

“Huh. Poyo.” I thought about what to do. I had an idea, but I didn’t think it was a good one. However, I didn’t really have much of a choice. "Hmm..." With a sigh, I picked up Twilight by one of her back legs and started to drag her along the road.

“Hey, what’re you doing with Twilight?” AJ asked sternly.

I pointed back where we came from. “Twi home.” I pointed at myself. “Tell Spike.”

“You’re gonna bring Twilight back to her castle so she can wake up there? And you’ll tell Spike what happened over here so he'll understand why she passed out?” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “But how are you gonna tell him? For all I know, you can’t talk in full sentences!”

I reached into Twilight’s saddlebag and pulled out a piece of paper and an ink-tipped feather. “Poyo!” On the paper, I wrote, I can’t talk well, but I can still write!

“Oh, I see!” AJ smiled. “You’re gonna bring Twilight back to her castle, then when Spike asks why Twilight fainted, you just write out the stuff that happened. Alright then, I trust you, Kirby. I guess I’ll be seeing you later!”

I waved at Applejack before hauling Twilight away. I may look pretty weak, but I’ve actually carried plenty of heavy stuff in my life. Really long electrified bars, giant bombs, huge golden hammers… Dragging Twilight was just like pushing Dyna Blade’s chicks over to Whispy Woods to feed them!

When I had pulled Twilight to the square, I crossed paths with another familiar face: my yellow helper! “Rocky!”

“...!” Rocky jumped with joy when he saw me. “...?” Then he saw that I was pulling Twilight along.

“Poyo.” I pointed at her, then did a fainting impression.

Rocky nodded. “...”

“Oh, my!” The white pony with the horn and purple mane came out of a boutique, and she was looking at Rocky. Thank the stars she didn’t notice that I was dragging Twilight along! “That hat looks positively smashing on you! It would look even better if the rocky part of your hat matched your color, but for that I’d have to ask a rock expert such as Maud. Might I ask, where did you get that stunning headgear?”

As I discreetly put Twilight down, Rocky tilted his head in confusion. “...?”

“Pardon my manners, I forgot to introduce myself!” The white pony proclaimed, “My name is Rarity, and I run Carousel Boutique, the perfect place for fashionistas. What might your name be?”

Rocky looked at me with worry in his eyes. “...”

Rarity was confused. “Can… can you talk?”

“No,” I said for my partner.

“Ah, that makes more sense. At first, I thought he was nervous or being rude to me. I don’t mean to invade your privacy, uh… whatever your name is, little pink thing.”

“Kirby.”

“Right. Kirby. Anyway, might this be one of your friends?”

I nodded. “Rocky!”

“I see. Are all of your friends this... how should I put this…” Rarity hesitated. “...unique?”

I shook my head. I had a lot of good friends, and some were crazier than others. Some of the more normal ones I had were Bandana Waddle Dee, Adeline, and Meta Knight.

Rocky looked at me again. “...” He seemed kind of annoyed, but mainly curious.

“...Oh!” I figured out what his problem was. I asked Rarity, “Maud, where?”

“I’m not sure where Maud is at the moment, but there’s this mine that she visits often. If you’d like, Rocky, I can lead you there.”

“...!” Rocky’s eyes sparkled. Rarity had him at 'mine'.

Rarity looked back at Carousel Boutique. “The only problem is, I would need somepony to tend the boutique, and it seems like Spike isn’t available at the moment…”

"A boutique, you say?" Gim left Sugarcube Corner with a party hat over his baseball cap. “Now this looks like a job for me!” He politely lifted his party hat. “Kirby’s friend Gim, at your service.”

“I’m not sure…” Rarity cautiously eyed Gim. She especially took note of his cap. “While you have proven that you have good manners and appear able to perform a fair variety of tasks, your rather immature attire causes me to doubt your ability to tend to the consumers at a boutique.”

“You’ve got a point,” Gim admitted. “But the only reason why my kind are dressed this way is to denote our signature skill: utilizing the power of inertia to wield yo-yos! If the ponies who come to Carousel Boutique go by looks alone, I will gladly show them that looks can be deceiving. With my knowledge of fabrics, threads, and color coordination, I will not let you down, my lady!”

When he mentioned those three fashion terms, Rarity gasped. “You know about threads and fabrics?! Then it is decided!” Gim took off his party hat while Rarity thrust a top hat onto his head. “Look after the boutique while I escort Rocky to the mine, okay? And be sure to treat customers with respect!” Without another word, she went off with Rocky.

Gim started to head into the boutique, but he noticed Twilight who was still passed out. “What happened here? Did she up and faint from seeing one of your fancy tricks?”

I nodded.

“Which one?”

“Inhale.”

“Really? Of all the powers you have, she fell unconscious from your least incredible one?” Gim walked into the boutique with dull surprise in his voice. “Bruh…”

Alone once more, I picked Twilight up again and continued to pull her to the amazing crystal tree-castle that she called home. But I was only about halfway to the castle when…

“Hey, little pink thing!” I looked up towards the sky, and I barely had time to dodge a blue and rainbow blur. The blur turned out to be the blue Pegasus with the rainbow mane. But to my shock, she was wearing a green hat with a yellow brim and a pompom covered in water at its tip. “Put Twilight down, or I’m gonna be forced to use this!” She brandished a silver sword covered in water.

“Poyo?!” I let go of Twilight’s hoof and put my arms in the air, all the while wondering how the Pegasus got her hooves on my Ability.

“Good. Now if you know what’s good for you, you’re gonna pack up your stuff and get the hay out of Equestria!”

“Poyo…” I didn’t want to provoke her, but she had something I owned. She wanted me to pack up my stuff, so I cautiously pointed at the hat and sword. “Mine.”

“Not anymore! You don’t deserve to have a weapon, you Twilight-napping fiend!” She raised the sword high, ready to slash me.

"Eep!" I closed my eyes and put my hands in front of my face out of fear.

However...

“Rainbow Dash, don’t do something you might regret,” a calm but disapproving male voice said.

Rainbow took her attention away from me to glare at whoever just spoke. “Oh yeah? Who are you to tell me what not to do?”

“I’m glad you asked.” I opened my eyes, and before us stood a gray unicorn stallion with a yellow and black mane and tail, purple irises, and a black horn. “My name is Bright Fountain, and I am known for being a reliable source of useful information. My extensive research on many subjects, including faraway planets, never fails me.” He flashed his cutie mark, a green book with a light bulb on the cover.

“Useful information, huh?” Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “Give me five good reasons why I shouldn’t dice up this thing.”

“Right away.” The light bulb on Bright Fountain’s cutie mark lit up. “First, Kirby is a Star Warrior. That means he is a hero who has traveled the galaxy to save his friends, and I’m sure a heroic pony such as you wouldn’t hurt a fellow hero. Second, he did not come to Equestria on purpose. He was accidentally teleported here by a psychic friend of his, so he couldn’t have come here with malicious intent. Third, I doubt Kirby would willingly knock out Twilight Sparkle. It’s more likely that she fainted after seeing one of his special powers. Fourth, if you kill Kirby, that’s one less hero to deal with an unexpected villain. He’s fought a literal Nightmare, Dark Matter, Zero, and several other dark villains that have threatened his home planet Pop Star and could have moved on to this planet. In other words, he's the reason Equestria's population hasn't dropped to zilch.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “And the fifth reason?”

Bright smirked. “He inhales his enemies and swallows them to gain their powers. The only reason you’re still here is that he doesn’t want to hurt you.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes went wide. She handed over my hat and took off like a jet.

When she was out of sight, Bright gave me a comforting smile. “Hey, Kirby. I hope she didn’t hurt you too badly. You alright?”

I nodded as I put away my Splash Sword hat. “Poyo.”

He looked down at Twilight. “Looks like she had such a big meltdown that she passed out. Which of your powers did you show her, your inhale?”

“Yup.” Applejack trotted over to us. “I saw it with my very own eyes. Kirby sucked up all them apples like a champ.”

Bright laughed at my little predicament. “You’ve got quite a bit on your appendages, Kirby. Looks like you could use some assistance. Would it help if I took over for you?”

“Eh, I dunno.” Applejack seemed suspicious of Bright. “I only just now met you, and I’m not so sure it’d be a good idea for a stranger to bring the princess of friendship to her castle. Maybe I should carry her?”

Bright brought his hoof to his forehead. “Ah, I hadn’t taken that into account. My apologies for giving you such a sudden and mysterious offer, Kirby.” He started walking towards the castle. “I’m off to Twilight’s castle to explain the situation to Spike so he won’t be surprised when he sees the bearer of honesty with an unconscious Twilight on her back.”

There was something off about him, but I didn’t see any reason to accuse him just yet. I always wait until I have real, solid proof before I pin the blame on anyone for anything... Okay, so I once falsely accused King Dedede of stealing my cake, but that was only one time.

Applejack hefted Twilight onto her back. “Kirby, I’ve got a weird feeling about this guy. It seems like he’s hiding something. What do you think?”

I shrugged. “Poyo.” I had a strange feeling about Bright Fountain as well, but in a good sort of way. I didn’t know him, but at the same time I felt like I remembered him from someplace.

Chapter 9: Rock-Solid Bond (Rocky)

“And here we are!” Rarity, as the white quadruped with the horn and lavender mane was apparently called, led me to a mine where gems were sparkling everywhere. They shone brilliantly, but I personally prefer gems that are more dull, like the ones that decorate my hat. “Maud’s right over there.” She pointed deeper into the mine, where a dull gray quadruped with a dull gray mane and tail was mining away at a wall. “Shall I introduce you to her?”

“...” I wanted to introduce myself, but I couldn’t. I had not yet tried turning into stone letters, let alone stone words. That meant I could not convey my name to Maud. So I nodded.

“Then let’s get you and her acquainted!” We walked together to see Maud. When I saw her face, it was clear that we would get along well. Her plain expression wouldn’t look special to most, but to the detail-oriented such as myself, it hid peace and satisfaction. Or perhaps it was because she was solely focused on mining? “Hello, Maud! I would like to introduce you to a new acquaintance of mine!”

Maud stopped mining and looked at us. “Hi, Rarity. Who’s your acquaintance, that yellow rock with the nice hat?” My first guess was correct. Even when she stopped mining, the look on her face was still calm and plain.

“Why, yes, actually. This is Rocky, a friend of a rather odd creature who…” In the brief moment that Rarity paused, I could see that she seemed to be doubting what she saw. “...fell out of the sky for some reason.” Rarity began to nervously sweat, probably remembering that she needed to check on the Gim she put in charge of the boutique. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to head back to the boutique in Ponyville so I can see how everything’s going there.” She galloped off in a hurry.

Maud looked down at me. “Hi, Rocky. I’m Maud, Pinkie Pie’s sister. Nice to meet you.” I didn’t know who that was, but Pinkie Pie sounded like she would be good friends with Kirby.

I looked up and met Maud’s gaze. “...” Her calm, yet serious gaze was one of someone who used to live with a versatile family: the happy one, the shy one, the grumpy one, the mother and father who are well-versed in proper etiquette, and Maud being the calm one. How was I so sure? Because the eyes are windows to the soul. That’s why my relatives and ancestors and I don’t tend to talk: we let our eyes and body do the talking.

“...I’ve never seen the type of rock that you’re made of before. Your texture and color reminds me of yellow sandstone, but you don’t exactly appear layered like sedimentary rocks. And you’re too bright yellow to be igneous.” Maud blinked. “You’re… not from the planet Equus, are you? Could you be from another planet?”

“...!” I quickly nodded, not batting an eye at the name Equus, which must have been the name of this planet. Maud was quite the impressive sort. With just a short inspection, she concluded that I was from another planet. And she barely showed much surprise at all.

“That’s interesting. I should get to know you well so I can learn about non-Equestrian rocks and minerals.” She took a pebble out of her pouch and put it in front of me. “But first, I want you to meet Boulder. We’ve been good friends for a while.”

Looking at Boulder, I could tell he’s been through a lot. Maud must have rescued him from weathering or erosion. We need more creatures like Maud, creatures who care for and know the usefulness of rocks. They stomp out fires, endure storms to keep creatures dry, and provide solid foundations for homes. And then there was that one rock who bestowed water to a group of humans long ago.

I snapped back to the present just in time for Maud to ask me, “Is there anything you do for fun, Rocky?”

“...” Fun? I never really thought about that. All I really did before I met Kirby was what my ancestors did: walk around, slide, and fall… Come to think of it, I suppose there was something I did for fun.

I led Maud to a cliff. I walked to the edge of it, and I turned back towards Maud. I nodded at her. She nodded back. I did something that most beings would never do if they wanted to live: I jumped off the cliff. Long falls are nothing for beings with bodies of stone.

…

...THUD.

An overwhelming surge of nostalgia hit me. I remembered the thrill of falling off of tall cliffs. I hadn’t done that for a long time, because I lived in an area where there were not many tall cliffs: Falluna Moon. I used to live on Pop Star, a place where there were very many slopes to slide down and cliffs to fall off of. Most of my relatives and ancestors rolled and slid down slopes, but not Grandpa Blocky. He taught me how to slide, yet he himself never slid before; he was an active rock who much preferred to walk around. So how did he teach me? He pushed me down slopes with his feet. We had plenty of fun together. But one day, Kirby came along and battled him. Grandpa Blocky took quite a beating, and then Kirby ate him and gained his stone powers.

I was very saddened and understandably horrified, so I ran away from the Rainbow Islands and went to see Papa Golem in the Mirror World, where he gave me a white and blue bandana for my 12th birthday. However, a few years since then, Kirby came over to the Mirror World for some reason. To my relief, he just passed by Papa Golem... but then a red Kirby approached and struck Papa Golem with a wooden mallet, flinging him to who-knows-where. Realizing that nowhere on Pop Star was safe from harm's grip, I rode a stray Warp Star to Falluna Moon, where Yggy Woods took me in.

Then several more years later, I was with the local Gim and Waddle Doo, who were conversing about whether Yggy was related to Whispy Woods, when Kirby (wearing a red hat and wielding a staff) came to Falluna Moon with a Bugzzy, a Broom Hatter, and a Wester in tow. I panicked when the pink puffball came near, but neither he nor his helpers attacked any of us. Instead, he threw a pink heart my way. When it hit me, my eyes were metaphorically opened; I learned Kirby's intentions and primary goal. It was at that point that I realized Kirby didn't mean any harm. He dismissed the Wester and recruited me to aid him during his mission, which was to stop a trio of mage ladies and to find out where some mysterious dark hearts came from. Even though I didn't know why he chose to befriend me specifically, I accepted his offer anyway.

Kirby's antics left me with several mysteries to be solved. Not a single day has passed since the Papa Golem incident when I don't wonder about where Papa Golem was launched, or where that red Kirby came from. And I forgive Kirby for eating Grandpa Blocky, but I still wonder why he did it. The only thing I do know is that Kirby is actually a hero and not a villain, which I learned from our very recent journey to the Divine Terminus.

Returning from my trip down memory lane, I saw that Maud found me at the bottom of the cliff. She didn’t seem scared, because I wasn’t risking my life when I fell. “Good job, Rocky. That was a great fall.”

I had a great fall indeed, just like the old nursery rhyme. They were fun to hear, but I was confused by some of them. How could a Grizzo jump over the moon? And why would several Poppy Bros Jr. live in a shoe? These are but a few of the many questions I have inside my head as I explore and learn new things.

Chapter 10: Seeing Double (Kirby)

While we continued to Twilight’s castle, Applejack decided she wanted to get to know me better. “I gotta say, you sure surprised me back when you sucked up all them apples. It was like you were a big parasprite without wings! But what was up with you setting a few apples aside and sucking up all the rest?”

I looked up at the still-unconscious Twilight. “Picnic.”

AJ remembered the picnic she and the other five ponies were having when I fell from the sky. “Oh, right! Twilight had to skip the picnic so she could do her studies on you! It sure was nice of you to leave those apples for her, though we’ll probably have to wait for her to wake up to give her them.” She smiled at me. “You’re not all that bad of a critter, you know?”

I nodded. “Poyo!”

Once we reached the castle, we saw that the doors were open. I bet it was because Bright Fountain left the doors open for us. We went in, and it was clear that we’d have to find the right doors to open to get back to Spike in the library.

“Head’s up, little guy,” Applejack told me. “This castle of Twilight’s is huge. There’s a lot of doors, and no doubt it’ll be a bit confusing to get back to where she was studying you. Do you want some help with returning to--”

“Poyo.” I’d normally accept help, but going through castles and the like is no problem for me. I ran about, only stopping every once in a while to remember where in the castle I was.

I only had to open a few doors to figure out my way to the library. But when I entered, I was in for a surprise. “Uh… Poyo?” Spike was cautiously watching a staredown between two ponies, both of them being Bright Fountain.

“Kirby?” Spike looked at me. “I’d ask why you’re back first, but this isn’t the time for that.”

Then AJ came into the library with Twilight still on her back and a confused expression on her face. “Uh… Does anyone care to explain… whatever is going on right now?”

The Bright on the right side answered, “Isn’t it obvious? One of us two identical ponies is an imposter, and we’re having a stereotypical imposter staredown while we wait for someone to figure out that I'm the real Bright Fountain.”

The left Bright replied, “I'm pretty sure you mean I'm the real Bright Fountain. I doubt the imposter could spout off information that would be useful in various circumstances.”

The right Bright put his hoof to his mouth dramatically. “Ooh, self-burn! See, insulting the imposter is exactly the kind of thing that the imposter would say in an attempt to blame the real deal.”

“And what you just said is also the kind of thing that an imposter would say! Isn’t that somewhat suspicious?”

The two continued volleying insults at each other until Spike stepped in. “Stop it! We’re getting nowhere with this! You said one of you was an imposter, right? Then let’s do this the way Twilight would solve the problem…” He pointed at Applejack. “AJ, knock Kirby into one of the walls lined with books. Trust me on this.”

Applejack recoiled. “What the?! I-if you say so…” She turned around and lifted her back right hoof. I got ready for impact. “Kirby, I hope you’ll forgive me for this…”

Bam! I was launched right into the wall on the far side of the room. “Oof!” I exclaimed as I got squashed against it. It looked like it hurt a lot, but I’m tougher than I seem. I looked up and saw that some of the books were about to fall onto me. “Eep!”

Suddenly, Twilight appeared beside me and used her magic to keep the books from falling. I guess Spike expected this to make her wake up. “Whew, they’re all safe. You really should be more careful--” She stopped as she saw me, Applejack, and the lookalikes, and she began to assess the situation. “Wait a minute… Did I pass out during our visit at Sweet Apple Acres, forcing Applejack to carry me back home where a pair of identical ponies are calling each other an imposter?”

I nodded. “Poyo.”

AJ confirmed my answer. “Yep, word for word.”

“I… I’m surprised I didn’t see that coming,” Twilight bashfully chuckled. “I should’ve known doing a field study on an alien would eventually cause me to faint.” She looked at the two identical ponies. “So, what’s the name of the real deal here?”

Spike answered, “Bright Fountain, apparently. He claims he loves to gather information that would be useful in many situations, so most likely he’s a nerd like you.” He thought about whether to talk about what AJ did. “Also, I had Applejack knock Kirby into the books to wake you up so you could help figure out who the imposter is.”

“If you wanted to get me to wake up, why didn’t you just have Kirby knock down one of the books?”

“Because Kirby seems so innocent! If you woke up to him knocking down your books, you’d think he was doing it because he was rude! We wanted to make it look like Kirby just accidentally bumped into the books.”

“Kirby went along with it just fine,” Applejack added. “It seemed like he didn’t want to lose your trust, Twilight.”

I gave Twilight a nervous smile. “Poyo…”

“Kirby…” Twilight smiled back at me. “You really are a good alien! Even though we just met, it seems like you care a lot about me! Thank you so much.”

I beamed. “Poyo!”

Twilight looked back at the two ponies who were still having their staredown. “So, one of you is Bright Fountain, an intelligent pony who loves to gather information that would be useful in a large variety of situations, while the other is an imposter? I think I have the solution…” She took some books down from the shelves. “A trivia competition!”

“A trivia competition?” the two Brights asked.

“That’s right!” Twilight gave each of them a card, the first with 1 on it and the second with 2 on it. “Since you two are identical, you will be referred to as the number on your card instead of who you both claim to be. As for how the competition itself will go--”

“Kirby! Kirby! I’m back!” All of a sudden, Gim came through the doorway. “Sorry if I missed anything, it’s just that--” He stopped and stared at the two Bright Fountains. “Hold up... This can't be right! I met Bright Fountain while running the Boutique for Rarity, and I don’t remember seeing anyone else who looked just like him.” He pointed an accusing finger. “One of you two is an imposter!”

They both deadpanned, “We know.”

Twilight waved. “Hi, Gim! I was just about to hold a trivia competition to determine who’s the real Bright Fountain.”

“Oh man, a trivia competition?” Gim pointed at himself. “My primary purpose may be yo-yos, but when it comes to trivia, I’m still the robot to go to! Can I host part of the contest?”

Twilight nodded. “Sure! Since you’re Kirby’s friend, I’ll divide the contest into two rounds of questions: ponies and Kirby.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it!” An invisible curtain rose and revealed something that looked like a combination of all kinds of animals. “You can’t have a trivia contest without one of the categories being miscellaneous!”

Twilight started to get mad at the creature, but then she considered the idea. “...Huh, you’re right, Discord. Alright then, the contest will consist of three rounds of questions. I will host the Equestrian questions, Gim will host the Kirby questions, and Discord will host the miscellaneous and random ones.”

“Oh, but this place isn’t quite fit for a trivia show, is it?” Discord snapped his fingers, and some game show-related stuff appeared in the room, including a screen, some recording stuff like the ones used by the Channel PPP Crew, and fun lights everywhere. He, Gim, and Twilight each stood at a blue and yellow podium. The two Bright Fountains stood at their own respective stands. The rest of us were seated in audience seats. “That’s much better. Now then, welcome to Brightest Bulb, where we are going to find out which of our two contestants is the truly bright one! The winner earns bragging rights, while the loser gets their tail kicked! Not literally, though. If only that were the case. Twilight, would you like to start us off with the first round?”

“Gladly, Discord. Here’s the first question…” Twilight opened one of her books. “There are three main tribes of ponies. To which tribe does the pony who successfully performed the Sonic Rainboom belong?”

Contestant 2 pressed the button in front of him. “Pegasus!”

“Correct!” Contestant 2 was showered with confetti. “Question two: When a Windigo is around, what changes in the atmosphere?”

Contestant 1 pressed the button. “It becomes colder.” Contestant 2 seemed impressed by Contestant 1’s knowledge.

“Correct! Perhaps I should move on to some more difficult questions.” Twilight searched through her books for tougher questions. “Alright! Question three: What is one of the various kinds of creatures, excluding ponies, that has enrolled at the recently-established School of Friendship?”

After a short pause, Contestant 1 answered. “A Changeling." Contestant 2 looked like he was about to get more serious.

“Correct! I must say, I’m surprised you chose one of the more subtle answers!” Twilight closed her books. “Time to see just how intelligent you really are! Question four: It was thanks to the Sonic Rainboom that I was able to perform which task as a filly?”

Contestant 2 answered. “Hatch a dragon egg. And the aforementioned egg hatched into Spike, who you would make your assistant.”

Twilight smiled, but she was astonished when Contestant 2 talked about Spike hatching from the egg and becoming Twilight’s assistant. “That’s… incredible! I don’t know many ponies besides my parents and Celestia herself who knew such a personal fact about me!” Contestant 2 got shot with a party cannon blast. “You get a bonus point!”

“Wait, there are bonus points?” Contestant 1 asked.

Ignoring Contestant 1’s question, Twilight moved on. “Here’s the final question of the pony round! I don’t remember seeing you around Ponyville, so it’s safe to ask this one. When I was a unicorn, I realized once that I hadn’t yet found a friendship lesson for the week to send to Celestia. What did I do in an attempt to provoke a friendship problem?”

With a smug look on his face, Contestant 1 answered. “You cast a love spell on a doll, causing a horde of ponies to recklessly go after it. No doubt Celestia had to step in and chastise you for doing something so foolish.”

Twilight frowned. “You earn two bonus points for being so precise, but I’m cancelling the bonus points because you arrogantly called my mistake foolish. You only get one point.”

Contestant 2 tried to hold back his laughter while Contestant 1 grimaced. “What else can I say? That’s not very friendly, Contestant 1.”

“And that’s it for round one!” Twilight looked up at the scoreboard above the two contestants. “Right now, our contestants are tied with three points each. We’ll have to see if the tie will be broken in the second round. Gim, will you do the honors?”

“Of course, Princess Twilight,” Gim replied. “As one of Kirby’s friends, I’m the host of the second round, and it’s all about Kirby! Let’s see what kinds of questions my database can come up with…” He made some robotic noises. “Got it! Here’s the first question of round two: Kirby is a child, so he can’t talk very well. Instead of proper speech, what does Kirby normally say?”

Contestant 2 answered. “Poyo!”

“That is correct! I guess that wasn’t really much of a quiz question… Question two: Stone, Sword, Fire, Beam. Which of these did Kirby use to defeat Octacon, a squid monster that once invaded Cappy Town?”

Contestant 1 stood still in baffled confusion while Contestant 2 answered. “Kirby used the Fire Ability to give the multi-legged threat a taste of his own medicine!”

“Contestant 2 is correct again! Contestant 1 needs to up his game if he wants to prove he’s not the imposter!”

Twilight asked, “Fire Ability?”

“That’s right,” Gim confirmed. “Kirby can adapt to various situations by taking on the powers of enemies he runs into. More details on that later. Now then, here comes question three! Marx and Magolor are both creatures that Kirby has met during his adventures, but they both shared a desire that Kirby didn’t know about until it was too late. What was that desire?”

Contestant 1 answered. “They both wanted to rule over Kirby’s home planet, and most likely the planets surrounding it.”

“Looks like Contestant 1 is catching up again! Let’s see if he can even the match again with question four! During his most recent adventure, Kirby has encountered various situations in which he had to utilize the combined might of himself and at least one friend. What is one of the two options you have if you need to pound an electric stake?”

Both contestants answered at the same time and said the same thing: “Encase a stone in psychic energy and slam it down on the stake!” Immediately after, they stared at each other with surprised faces.

“You’re both correct! One point to each of you!” Gim held out one finger. “This is the last question of the Kirby round, so get ready. Some of the villains Kirby has fought had the resolve to keep battling even after losing. What is the physical appearance of the villain that fused with a massive vine in order to destroy Kirby and rule over Pop Star?”

Contestant 1 answered, much to Contestant 2’s frustration. “An insectoid monarch queen not unlike a bee or wasp.”

“Nice! You got that one right too!” Gim checked the scoreboard. “I can’t believe it! After two rounds, it’s still a tied game!” He looked up at Discord. “Well, looks like it’s your turn to host, big guy.”

“Don’t mind if I do.” Discord held a microphone in his paw and put on a pair of glasses. “Folks, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for! That’s right, it’s the random/miscellaneous round!” Applause came out of nowhere, although the real audience clapped too. “The first question is this! If one in the hand is worth two in the bush, how many bushes equal seven hands?”

Contestant 2 answered. “Zero.”

Discord blinked. “You’re one smart cookie for seeing through my little trick. Nothing was in the bushes or hands!” He adjusted his glasses. “Very well, on to question two. What would happen if I tried being normal?”

Contestant 2 answered again. “You would be destroying yourself, and you would slowly fade away into non-existence.”

Discord shuddered. “You got that right. You got it right on a personal level… Anyway, now for question three. If you met someone with absurdly high power levels, what would be the most awesome thing to do?”

Contestant 2 answered yet again. “Crush your scouter in your hoof and exclaim that their power level is over nine thousand!”

“And now I know that your reference levels are over nine thousand! Question four: What are the usual characteristics of a weak spot of a boss?”

For the fourth time in a row, Contestant 2 answered. “It’s red, big, or glows.”

“That’s exactly right! Time for the final question of the day!” Discord smirked. “True or false: I am the perfect host for this round.”

Contestant 2 returned the smirk as he answered. “True, obviously. You’re literally the god of chaos and all things random!”

“Well, duh!” Discord looked up at the scoreboard with a smile on his face. “And I’ve got to say, the results aren’t surprising. Contestant 2 wins by a landslide, 11 to 6!”

Eye twitching, Contestant 1 angrily slammed his front hooves on his stand. “This is absurd! You’ve been asking questions that only yourself and creatures who know a lot about very specific categories could answer without getting confused!”

Discord crossed his arms. “Exactly! That was the random round for a reason! But if you’re really going to be that salty, fine. Let’s do something that you are actually able to do.” He snapped his fingers again, and the game show stuff disappeared. Then, in the middle of the room, a dance floor appeared. “Everyone knows how to dance! Surely you stand a chance in a dancing competition!”

“A dancing competition?” Twilight asked. “That might actually work. A studious pony such as Bright Fountain would likely use both proper dance moves and innovative moves to tell a story, while an imposter would probably do… their best.”

“But there’s one problem with hosting a dance competition…” Gim put his hand to his chin. “None of us are dance experts. We have no experience with hosting this sort of thing. Who is gonna be the judge of how well they dance?”

“Looks like I came just in time.” A light brown unicorn mare with her auburn mane neatly wrapped into a bun invited herself into the library. “Call me Power Beat. When it comes to the dance floor, there’s nopony better to judge a competition than me!”

Discord took out a notebook and began to write in it. “First Bright Fountain, then Power Beat… Are there any other original characters in this story I need to know about?”

“Nope,” the victorious Bright Fountain answered. Then he winked at Power Beat. “Not yet, at least. Power Beat, we’re trying to figure out who’s the imposter: this guy or me. Would you mind judging a dance competition between us to figure out who’s the real deal?”

“I live for dancing and music, Upbeat! Of course I will!” Power Beat’s cutie mark, a whole note, began to glow. Music came from it. “Let’s see how you and Backbeat match up when I play the soulful Moonstruck Blossom!”

Backbeat and Upbeat? I guess that sounds a lot better than Dancer 1 and Dancer 2. And it’s way less annoying to say something like Backbeat and Upbeat instead of Contestant 1 and Contestant 2 all the time.

Backbeat performed a series of graceful movements in sync with the melody. Upbeat, on the other hand, told a story with his dance. A story that sounded very familiar to me.

Two good friends, ruling peacefully over a land in the sky. But one day, one of them became corrupted by a toxic desire for eternal beauty after the other found her a seemingly harmless gift, a mirror. Forgetting who she truly was, she made her former friend her servant and ruled over the people of the sky with malice. She sent her former friend to capture the hero of the land below to prevent said hero from stopping her cruel reign, but the servant got the wrong guy. The real hero came to save the day, rescuing the person that was captured by the servant and foiling the plans of the monarch. This angered her, and she used her magic to transform in order to defeat the hero once and for all. The servant was saddened that his old friend had taken a turn for the worse, but he helped the hero put an end to her tyrannical reign and became the hero’s friend.

Wiping a tear from her eye, Power Beat smiled from ear to ear. “Upbeat, or should I say, the real Bright Fountain… I wondered why you looked so unique, but not anymore. Only a select few know the story of the moonlit fatal bloom, and even fewer are able to portray the story with dancing. And that means we both have something we’ve been hiding from these ponies.”

“And dragon,” added Spike.

“Not to mention draconequus,” Discord replied.

"Of course, I can't forget about you two. Anyway..." Power Beat looked at the creatures in the room with a shy smile. "I don't like to deceive others, but I'm not really Power Beat. I'm not even a pony!" This caused Twilight to grab a feather and paper in anticipation. "I took on this form in order to fit in with the locals in Equestria. My true identity is..."

Power Beat's body started glowing, then it dissolved into musical notes, revealing a small bipedal girl with Power Beat's hair color and hairstyle. Everyone was awestruck.

"Meloetta!" A sphere of energy quickly covered her, and it disappeared just as fast, showing that she now had green, flowing, wavy hair.

"Ah, if it isn't the melody Pokemon herself! There's a lot I need to catch you up on." Bright Fountain walked over and hoof-bumped Meloetta. "So, what brings you here to Planet Equus?"

"Mele!" Meloetta pointed at the dance floor. "Melemele! Meloetta!"

"The very mention of a dancing competition lured you here? I should have known. Leave it to the music master to judge a dance-off!" Bright looked around at the confused looks the others were giving him. "Meloetta and I, we've known each other for a long time. I'll explain later. Right now, I think it's time you all know that I've been hiding something."

"I've reason to assume I already know what you've been hiding..." Without warning, the imposter yanked Bright Fountain closer using its magic.

“...love.”

It opened its mouth and bared its fangs, to everyone’s horror except Bright Fountain and Meloetta, who were smirking.

Nothing happened, to the imposter's confusion. “What?! I should be able to steal your love!”

“On the contrary. It’s impossible to steal love from someone…” Right before our eyes, Bright Fountain’s body dissolved away. In its place was a weird gray bird robot with purple light-up eyes and a yellow beak and arms. “...who is incapable of feeling real emotions!”

The imposter backed away with disbelief in its eyes. Everyone else was shocked as well, except for me and Power Beat. The imposter stammered, “You… you’re…”

“You’re a robot!” Twilight exclaimed. "No wonder you weren't drained of love... You didn't have any to be drained of!"

I jumped with joy. “Poyo! Friend!”

“Indeed I am,” the robot said. “My full identity is Roborygon Mk. Z, but you all can simply call me Roborygon. As for the imposter, I believe I already know who it really is…” He turned his right arm into an electric blaster of some sort and electrified the imposter, revealing it to be a black and green insect pony with a horn. “Queen Chrysalis, just as I thought!”

Chrysalis turned from astonishment to rage. “You tricked me, you disgusting hunk of intellectual metal! You turned into a pony so you could deceive me!”

Roborygon shook his head. “That isn’t the reason why I turned into a pony. I took on that form so I could blend in with the crowd on my journey to rescue Kirby and his friends from this world while the Mane Six beat up a new villain Kirby encountered. I am a robot, but that doesn’t mean I can’t pretend to feel. I emulate emotions, and that somehow caused me to be able to trick you." He tsked. "I am quite disappointed, to be honest. I expected you to be able to sniff out love with those nostrils of yours, but you must be nose-blind. Why do you even have nostrils while other changelings don’t? That’s a question that’s been on my mind for a while.”

“That’s… a good question, actually. I never really thought about it. But if I had to guess, it’s because I am the dominant--wait, why am I even answering your question?!” Chrysalis pushed Roborygon away with her magic and pulled me in. “You, pink thing! I’ll take your love instead! Do not resist!”

“Poyo.” She wanted love, so I gave her love. I concentrated friendship into a pink heart, then I shoved it down her throat.

The queen comically choked on the Friend Heart. “Mother of Faust, you have some nerve, preventing me from savoring the taste of that... love in physical form!”

“In any case, you ought to be honored to eat a Friend Heart, Queen Chrysalis.” Gim produced a green heart in his hand. “Kirby gained the ability to throw these friendship-imbued hearts when a pink heart given off by the Heart Spears landed on him. The Heart Spears were keeping a Dark Lord trapped in a heart of pure darkness called the Jamba Heart.”

Twilight looked at my yo-yo-wielding friend with a raised eyebrow. “And you know that about the hearts… how?”

Gim scratched his head. “I honestly don’t know. When I met Roborygon’s pony persona in the Carousel Boutique, a bunch of stuff got added to my database for some reason. But I do know that I heard this Hyness guy ranting about being banished and trying to revive this Dark Lord, among other stuff.” He put his hand to where his mouth would be. “Oops, I think I said too much. Kirby, blow her into next Tuesday!”

Chrysalis gasped. “Oh no, you know about him! I must go warn--”

Before she could finish, she was sucked into my vacuum-like mouth.

“Whoa…” Spike’s jaw dropped. “That’s so cool! Kirby just inhaled Queen Chrysalis into his mouth like it was nothing!”

Applejack chuckled, “Now you know what caused Twilight to pass out. She saw Kirby suck up a bunch of my apples to fill his belly.”

Discord followed me as an eyewitness while I waddled my way out of Twilight’s castle. When I finally got to the exit and left the castle, I looked around for a good target to aim at. My sights settled on a dark forest. And… Ptooey! With one good spit, I launched the changeling queen clear into the forest.

Discord giggled as he closed his camcorder. “Oh boy, the ponies are NOT going to believe this at all. But they’ll have to, because I got it on camera!”

Author's Note

For clarification about Meloetta, my headcanon in my stories leading up to this one is that Meloetta acts as a sort of deity of music. She can empower others and herself by singing and playing music.

But I really am curious about Queen Chrysalis, though. Why is she the only changeling with nostrils and "regular" eyes? :applejackunsure:

Chapter 12: Star Road to Canterlot Castle (Kirby)

After gathering all of the bearers of harmony, we went to the square. Twilight looked around at us. “Okay, is everyone present? Let’s do a headcount just to be safe. Spike?”

Spike nodded. “Sure thing, Twilight.” He counted the six ponies. “One, two, three, four, five, six…” Then he counted me, Roborygon, Meloetta, Gim, and himself. “Seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven. Huh, looks like we’re still missing that Rocky guy.” He looked over at me. I was still giving off a heart-shaped glow. “Oh, right. He’s coming to us. I think that makes everyone.”

“Great!” Twilight smiled at me. “Kirby, we’re heading to Canterlot by means of a form of locomotion known as a train. It’s called the Friendship Express!”

“Express?” Friendship Express… I heard that somewhere before. After a few seconds of thinking, I remembered. It was around a month ago, when I worked together with my friends from other worlds to beat up a corrupted villain. The very last attack we performed was really coordinated. We lined up and took off like a… “Train...! Friend Train!”

“Hold on a minute.” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “First a robot, then a rock, now you’re telling me you have another friend who is a train?!”

Gim held his hand out at Twilight. “Nah, that isn’t what he meant! It seems like mentioning the Friendship Express reminded Kirby of a special skill he can utilize with his friends, called the Friend Train! It sounds a bit far-fetched, but what can I say? Friendship can allow creatures to do things that would otherwise be completely impossible!”

“A teamwork move called the Friend Train?” Pinkie squealed. “That sounds awesome! You gotta show us sometime!”

“We’d love to, but not now. It’s time we board the Friendship Express and make our way to the princess in Canterlot!” Gim looked up and searched for the yellow ball of light known as the sun. He found it, and it was still pretty far from the horizon. “Good, looks like we’ve got plenty of time to catch the train!”

“What makes you so sure of that?” Applejack asked. “You can’t tell time just by checking to see if the sun’s up in the sky. The royal sisters raise the sun and moon to turn day to night.”

“You’re serious?! I thought the sun and moon moved on their own like on Kirby’s home planet Pop Star. Guess I’ll have to figure out the time my own way.” He tapped the side of his eye. “Oh, my internal clock must have reset when I fell unconscious and had to reboot. Does anyone know what time it was when Kirby fell here?”

Twilight took out a notepad. “We planned our picnic to be a quarter after noon, but it had to be delayed an hour because Fluttershy had to care for an injured creature. Kirby fell and interrupted the picnic precisely four minutes and twenty-seven seconds after we began. I would normally continue my deduction, but Kirby caused me to pass out at Sweet Apple Acres. Any chance that one of you knows how much time passed since Kirby landed?”

Gim raised his hand. “Because NESP teleported us all here at the same time, that means I landed at approximately the same time as Kirby. It’s been about four hours since then, so I’d say the time right now is around 5:19 PM.”

“5:19 PM?!” Twilight’s pupils shrank. “We’ve gotta hurry! Get ready, newcomers to Equestria. This is gonna feel weird.” Her horn flashed, and we teleported somewhere.

When my eyes adjusted, I saw that we were at a train station. The only problem was, I didn’t see a train anywhere. I frowned. “Poyo…”

“We’re too late!” Twilight exclaimed. “The train already left! I could teleport you all there, but teleporting a group of creatures is tough. How are we gonna get there fast enough?”

“Hmm…” To try and figure out what to do, I thought hard and looked inside myself for the answer. No, not my stomach dimension. I looked into my heart…! “Poyo!” I got it! I used body language to get my point across to the others. I brought my hands to my chest and closed my eyes. “Poyo…” I jumped and did a spin with my arms and legs out. “Star!”

“Summon the Friend Star?” Gim’s eye flickered, which was probably his way of blinking. “Your insanity levels must be off the charts! You’ve only ever tried it with three friends. It's gotta be pretty risky to try it out with this many creatures. Plus, these ponies don’t seem to trust us enough to have a bond with us as strong as the one we have among ourselves.”

“That may be so,” Rarity replied, “but as the bearers of harmony, our friendship is one that cannot be rivaled by most other friendships. Perhaps one of the only bonds that can rival ours is a family’s bond.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Oh, yes! We have the kind of bond that villains such as Lord Tirek and King Sombra can’t even comprehend!”

“You pose an excellent point, Rarity and Fluttershy. Perhaps this might work out after all…” Roborygon put an appendage to his metal chin. “I believe I have a solution. Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, I will go with you three directly to Canterlot, but I must first instruct the others on how to use the Friend Star if possible. As for the rest of you, I have simple instructions for you to follow that will allow you to quickly catch up.”

The ponies and Spike looked at Twilight. She nodded. “Understood. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, let’s heed his instructions. I trust him not to pull one over on the others while we’re gone.” Twilight and Rarity teleported away, and Rainbow flew off to Canterlot, but not before giving Roborygon an “I’m watching you” motion with her front hoof.

Rocky reunited with us shortly after Rainbow Dash took off. I couldn’t tell since he didn’t have an actual mouth, but Roborygon seemed to be smiling. “Good, you’re just in time. I was about to introduce our new friends to the phenomenon known as a Friend Action. The action this time: Friend Star!”

“Friend Star?” Spike asked. “That sounds kind of cheesy, but at the same time it also sounds pretty awesome! You gotta tell us how to pull it off!”

“Of course! Remember, if at any point you feel confused, Kirby can help guide you if my wording throws you off. In fact, he and his friends will be calling upon the Friend Star at the same time as you four are. We’re all in this together!”

Gim, Rocky, Meloetta, and I all got ready. “Poyo!”

Roborygon brought up a screen with four stars spinning at the same time. “First, you need to be in sync, working as one unit, if you want to master the Friend Star. There's a reason these are called Friend Actions and not Chaos Actions!”

My friends and I demonstrated by doing a short moonwalk followed by the wave.

Spike crossed his arms confidently. “In sync? These are the bearers of harmony you’re talking about! You’re practically insulting our bond of friendship. And you know what they say about friendship…”

At the same time, the three ponies and Spike exclaimed, “Friendship is magic!”

Roborygon chuckled. “Ah, I suppose I should have taken into account the fact that I’m talking to the bearers of harmony and the assistant of one of said bearers. On to step two.” The screen changed to show a silhouette of a pony with a pink heart inside of it. “The four of you need to concentrate on your bond of friendship. You should feel a strong sense of positivity within and around you.”

“Poyo!” I demonstrated by thinking about all the friends I made during all my journeys throughout and past Pop Star in my attempts to take down every dark villain in my path.

I looked at the others, and I smiled. Applejack almost instantly glowed pink, followed by Pinkie and then Fluttershy. Spike took a little while to glow, but he did it.

“Fantastic! The next step depends on which Friend Action you wish to perform. Since we intend to use the Friend Star, the third and final step is this!” Finally, the screen changed to a Pegasus freely flying through the air without a care in the world. “Focus your positivity into the belief that you can soar high above your problems and be free of everything that is weighing your heart down!”

And before my very eyes, the Mane Three and Spike created a winged star out of pure friendship. The ponies rode the tail, while Spike piloted the star. They all oohed and ahhed at what they had just accomplished.

Having finished summoning our own Friend Star, I congratulated them with a fist pump. “Poyo! Poyo!”

Roborygon applauded the heroes. “Congratulations to you four! Friend Actions such as the Friend Star are most definitely proof that with friendship, nothing can stand in your way. But I cannot stick around any longer. I must catch up with Twilight and Rainbow.”

“Hey, you forgot to teach us how to…” Spike tried to call out to Roborygon, but the robot had already taken off. “...fly this thing. Great, now we’re gonna have to learn to ride this Friend Star on our own.”

“No need to learn, because we already know!” Pinkie said. The others gave her weird looks. “What? Roborygon said to focus our positivity into the belief that we can soar freely through life, so he must mean that the Friend Star is made of our hopes and dreams. And that means we control it with our minds!”

“Using our minds? ...I can’t believe I didn’t think of--Whoa, wait for us!” While Spike was thinking, my friends and I left the others in the dust so we could reach Canterlot in time.

Gim waved at them. “Yo, Spike! You might want to get your brain running faster. Late to the realization, tardiness is your destination!”

About a minute or two later, we made it to Canterlot. It was a fancy medieval city kind of like Royal Road, but with brighter colors, and with ponies instead of bugs. And it didn’t float in the sky at the end of a giant beanstalk.

“Poyo!” I saw Roborygon, Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash waiting in the square near the castle entrance. “Poyo--whoa!” I waved to get their attention, but I had to quickly grab onto the Friend Star to regain its balance.

“Sounds like Kirby made it in time, and without even having to catch the train!” Twilight looked up at the sky to look for me. “But I suppose that this so-called Friend Star must--Dear Celestia, is that a shooting star?!”

The other Friend Star caught up, with Applejack as the pilot. “Listen up, Kirby. I know y’all were in a rush to get to Canterlot, but you still ought to wait for us to catch up. We’d still be way behind if I hadn’t found out about the Friend Star’s loop-de-loop speed boost. And what do we even do with this when we’re done?”

My friends and I dismissed our Friend Star, changing it back into friend energy that went back inside of us while Roborygon told AJ what to do. “Seeing as the Friend Star is a physical manifestation of your friendship, hopes, and dreams, it does as your mind commands it to. Just dismiss it, and it will revert back to pure friendship and return to your bodies.”

“Oh, it’s that easy?” The ponies and Spike dismissed the Friend Star. “Well, I guess I’d better thank you for that,” AJ thanked Roborygon, “but you still don’t have a reason to just up and ditch us before we got the chance to ask you how to pilot the Friend Star! That’s like telling a foal to knock the apples out of a tree without telling ‘im how to do it!”

“Poyo!” I pointed up at the sun, then at the castle. “Time!”

“Kirby’s got a point,” Twilight said. “Roborygon probably wanted us to get to the castle as fast as possible so we don’t keep the princesses waiting.”

“He’s got his priorities right, but you’ll have to be a lot faster if you want to be anywhere near fast in my eyes!” Rainbow teased. “C’mon! Let’s go tell the princesses what’s happening!”

But once we reached the gates, the Pegasus guards blocked the way forward with their wings. “Halt! We have been notified that Queen Chrysalis has recently infiltrated Twilight’s castle, which means she could still be around. Prove to us that Chrysalis is not among you.”

Twilight glanced at Roborygon. “I request permission to allow this being to give off an electrical impulse.”

The guards were unsure, but they obliged. “Permission granted. Don’t try anything sneaky, strange creature.”

Roborygon nodded. “Of course, sir.” The tip of his antenna glowed yellow, then suddenly, it gave off a wave that gave me chills. It seemed to give everyone else chills too, especially Pinkie Pie, whose mane stood on end from the electricity. “My apologies if that caused you a tingly feeling or some mane trouble. Such are aftereffects of electrical stimulation.”

Hearing this, the guards took a look at their manes. Their manes were short, so they weren’t affected much. “We appreciate your concern. But what did that impulse have to do with Queen Chrysalis?”

“The answer is quite simple, really,” Twilight replied. “Changelings can alter their DNA in order to morph into other creatures.” She took me in her magic and stretched my cheeks out. “They’re pliable, like rubber. But this strains them somewhat, so…” She let go, and my cheeks snapped back into place. “A sudden, strong influence such as electricity will shock them back into their usual form. In other words, the electrical impulse would have zapped Chrysalis into blowing her cover.”

“Ah, I can see how that would work. Very well, then.” The guards retracted their wings, allowing us to proceed into the castle. “Seeing as Chrysalis is not one of you, we shall let you pass. The princesses await your arrival.”

“Thanks, guards.” Twilight went first. “Let’s go, everyone.” She smiled towards me and my friends as we all followed her. “Non-Equestrians, you are about to meet the two most important ponies in all of Equestria!”

Rocky’s eyes sparkled. “...” I wasn’t sure whether he was excited to see the princesses, or whether he was eager to see what kind of gems they wore in their crowns.

The inside of the castle reminded me a lot of King Dedede’s castle. There was a long hallway, some flags and tapestries (which didn’t all depict the owners of the castle like Dedede, who had an ego the size of the Dreamstalk)...

...And royalty.

“Poyo…” My friends and I knelt (or tried to, at least; the only one who had legs was Meloetta) when we saw the ponies sitting on the two thrones at the end of the hallway.

“My, what an intriguing group of creatures you escorted here, Twilight,” said the one on the bigger throne, a tall white alicorn with a celestial mane. “I daresay they look like they came out of a dream! Wouldn’t you say so, Luna?”

“I couldn’t agree more, sister,” answered the one on the smaller throne, a slightly shorter black alicorn with a mane like the night sky. “The pink one looks as if it came directly from Pinkie Pie’s vast imagination! Does it have a name?”

“Yes it does, Your Majesty.” Twilight nudged me forward with her magic. “Allow me to introduce you to a being whose supernatural power allowed him to expel Queen Chrysalis from my castle. His name… Kirby.”

The expressions on the two ponies’ faces were blank. No doubt they were trying to wrap their heads around how such a cute little guy like me could send Chrysalis flying. “Is… Is this some kind of joke?” the white one asked. “Spike’s description of Kirby led me to believe that he would be a tad bigger. And perhaps less docile.”

AJ shook her head. “This ain’t a joke, Celestia. I saw the little critter suck Chrysalis up and blow her on outta the castle. If you don’t believe me, you might as well watch him do his thing yourselves.”

“And that’s where I come in!” A zipper unzipped a nearby wall, and Discord came out of it. “I personally captured footage of…” He caught me staring at him. I was smirking. “What? Why are you looking at me like that? Stop it. It’s creeping me out! Wait, you don’t mean… Uh oh, this is bad!” He put on a construction hat and built a brick wall between me and him. “Whew, maybe now I’m safe from him…”

“I believe the contrary may be true, Discord.” Princess Luna looked down at me with the same smirk I gave Discord. “Little one, will you please demonstrate your unique power? That is, unless your unique power is cuteness, in which case you have already demonstrated it to us,” she snickered.

I frowned at her for teasing me. “Poyo!” I observed the brick wall. It seemed pretty solid, but I’ve inhaled some pretty tough stuff, like Golems and big stone Star Blocks. “Poyo…” I planted my feet firmly on the ground.

Applejack exclaimed, “Hang onto yer crowns, Princesses! Otherwise, they just might go down the hatch!”

The princesses did as they were told just in time for me to unleash the might of my stomach. My inhaling vortex was aimed towards the brick wall. At first, it didn’t do anything. But I upped the ante, and the concrete on the bottom of the brick wall began to crack.

Luna stared at me in shock. “Never before have I seen such raw power hiding within a mouth… Kirby’s inhaling strength could rival the physical strength of the bearer of honesty!”

And then some. After about ten seconds, the wall finally fell victim to my inhale. The whole thing got trapped inside my mouth, revealing a half-flabbergasted, half-horrified Discord. “...Are you kidding me?! You can suck that hard?!”

I promptly spat the wall back out, crushing Discord under its weight. “Yeah!” I turned around to see how the bearers of harmony reacted. Twilight, AJ, and Rainbow Dash were surprised but proud of me. Fluttershy was cowering behind Rarity, who was currently fixing her messed-up hairdo. And Pinkie Pie, well… her frizz got freaked again.

The princesses were still in shock, but they calmed down enough to at least speak. Celestia said, “That inhaling power of yours is… extraordinary, to say the least. If you had an appetite to match, you’d run the entirety of Equestria out of food!”

“Poyo…” Truth is, I do have the appetite to match. The reason why I hadn’t yet run Dream Land out of food is that I don’t eat ALL the time. I still gotta leave time to play and have fun with my friends, after all! Plus, I’m not an egotistical tyrant like King Dedede.

“So, what about the other creatures here?” Luna asked. “Would you care to introduce yourselves to us as well?”

My friends all nodded. Meloetta started by lifting the brick wall with her psychic powers, revealing a flattened Discord. “Meloetta!” She folded Discord into a paper airplane and threw him through the unzipped wall followed by the brick wall, then she zipped it back up.

Roborygon went next. “Before I introduce myself, allow me to speak on the topic of Meloetta. She is one of various species of creatures known as Pocket Monsters, or Pokemon for short. Because of that, she can only speak through syllables of her own species’ name. A peculiarity about Meloetta in particular is that the songs she sings have special powers.”

“And you are?” Celestia asked.

“I am an artificial creation known as Roborygon Mk. Z, but most simply refer to me as Roborygon. Seeing as she intended for me to be a multipurpose robot whose primary reason for existence is to aid a certain friend of Kirby, my creator equipped me with several functions, such as a universal translator, a hologram projector, a solid-light module that can produce objects made entirely of solidified light, and various weapons to fend off villains that may catch my friends off-guard. But the most important thing to know about me is that I gather vast amounts of information on things I come across, meaning that I am an incredibly valuable source of knowledge.”

“Really? No wonder you got almost every question right in your attempt to prove that you were the real deal.” Spike fist-bumped Roborygon. “Oh, and princesses, this is who Queen Chrysalis disguised herself as in order to infiltrate Twilight’s castle.”

“Except that I had used my solid-light module to take on the form of a pony, so Chrysalis changed into that form instead of my real form.” Roborygon proceeded to transform into his pony persona. “In my pony form, I used the alias Bright Fountain. I had no bad intentions. I just wanted to fit into the world of ponies.” He changed back into his usual form. “Seriously, wouldn’t the average pony be either surprised or horrified to see a robot roaming around Equestria?”

The princesses were about to respond with a counterargument, but couldn’t find one. “Fair enough,” Luna replied. “And the last two creatures?”

Gim pointed a thumb at himself. “I am one of various robots known informally as Gim. We normally don’t battle, but Kirby here came to my home planet Misteen to recruit me to help him take down some evil villains. Same goes for Rocky, whose home is Falluna Moon.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “If your kind doesn’t battle, then how could you possibly help Kirby battle villains?”

“Looks can be deceiving! This cap of mine may imply that I don’t really fight well, but that could not be further from the truth. The object I always carry around also happens to be quite useful in battle…” Gim took out his yo-yo, which was still on fire. “A yo-yo! These are normally used for fun and play, but Kirby added fire to mine to make it stronger and ready to take on the forces of evil!”

“Your weapon is… a yo-yo?” Rainbow crossed her front legs. “I’ve never even heard of one before, but it sounds lame. I mean, sure, yours is on fire, but how are you supposed to attack with it?”

“Poor choice of words, Dash.” Gim wrapped his yo-yo around Rainbow before using the Hammer Drop move to slam her down. When she got up, Gim knocked her off her hooves with a Yo-Yo Orbit then smacked her in the face with a Yo-Yo Throw. “Anything can be a weapon if you can smack or poke stuff with it.” Then he put out a tiny flame at the tip of Rainbow Dash’s mane by pinching it with his hand. “I make sure that villains are the ones who get burned when they play with fire, but sometimes heroes need to learn to be careful as well.”

“I must say, Gim, those are quite some words of wisdom,” Celestia said with a smile. “The truth is, I have had to chastise a certain heroic pony a time or two as well.” I saw Twilight flinch after hearing this. “But there’s nothing wrong with a little discipline every once in a while. It only makes you stronger.”

Rocky nudged my yo-yo wielding ally. “Oh, right. Rocky can’t talk, so he wants me to tell you that he can change himself into various stone formations. This can normally be used to crush foes from above, but water or ice can allow him to slide quickly across the ground as a curling stone and slam foes from the side.”

“The power to smash villains using your weight? Now that is the kind of skill that is perfect for annihilating the likes of Queen Chrysalis!” Luna exclaimed. “I have no doubts in my mind that together, these six mysterious creatures are able to defeat such a villain!”

“We should probably formulate a plan on what to do, but that might have to wait.” Gim tapped the side of his eye. He was probably checking something. “Yep, I’d say it’s around 6:00 PM at this point in time. Princesses Celestia and Luna, I request your advice. Should we put together a plan now, or wait until dawn?”

“Oh, thank you for reminding us of the time!” Celestia replied. “Luna and I need to head out on the balcony to turn day to night. Would any of you like to come watch?”

I’ve never actually seen anyone raise or lower the sun and moon, so I was super excited to see them do their thing. “Poyo! Poyo!” This was the opportunity of a lifetime!

My friends seemed to think so too. “...!” “You bet I would!” “Mele!” “I would be honored to, royal sisters!”

“That’s good to hear!” Celestia smiled. “Or not hear, in Rocky’s case… Anyway, we will lead the way, so just follow us outside.”

We all followed Celestia and Luna through the castle, passing by some guards who gave us some weird looks. They immediately went back to work after seeing the bearers of harmony with us. I guess they understood that the six heroic ponies knew what they were doing.

At last, we reached the balcony. I had an awesome view of Canterlot. It was just like the view I had from Fine Fields, except that I was still on the ground instead of on a floating world. “Kirby, I want you and your allies to watch closely,” Celestia told me. “First, I lower the sun, like this…” Her horn glowed yellow, and the same aura surrounded the sun as it went below the horizon.

“Now it is my turn.” Luna stepped forward. “It isn’t officially night until the moon is in the sky.” Her horn glowed dark blue, and the moon rose. “An impressive feat, is it not?”

“Mele!” Eyes sparkling, Meloetta floated onto the railing surrounding the balcony and faced the moon. “Meloetta…” She held her arms out and basked in the moon’s light.

Luna gave Meloetta an approving grin. “I see that you are enjoying the presence of the moon. Might I ask, though, why you are taking on such a pose?”

“That is an excellent question.” Roborygon carefully observed Meloetta’s posture. “If I am not mistaken, she appears to be using the move Moonlight to restore her stamina.”

Once she finished restoring her stamina, Meloetta sat down on the railing and started to sing. “Me melele, me melele, me mele me mele me melele…” Her song made me feel peaceful and relaxed. The others seemed to be relaxed too.

“Remember when I mentioned that Meloetta’s songs boast special powers? This is one of them, and it’s known as the Song of Love. Her songs can have the potential to alter the moods of those who hear it, and this song in particular can induce a sense of peace and love.”

“A sense of peace?” Luna let out a sigh of relief. “Good. That means tonight should have less nightmares than usual for me to deal with.”

“To deal with?” Gim asked. “Does that mean you help ponies to overcome nightmares each night? Sounds like a tough job…”

“It’s actually not as bad as you think. Ever since I removed the threat of the Tantabus, nightmares have been quite rare. If things are calm tonight, you might even see me visit you in your own dreams.” Luna winked. “But before we do that, perhaps it would be best for us to find you five somewhere to sleep. The ponies already have somewhere to sleep, but we didn’t plan for strange creatures to rest here.”

“As a robot, I can literally sleep anywhere. I can shut down on this balcony and still wake up refreshed!” Gim pressed a button on the left side of his right shoe, and he instantly shut off.

“I’ll rest with Gim, but I’ll still keep my reconnaissance system active in case anything weird happens overnight.” Roborygon changed shape into a cube and went into sleep mode right next to Gim.

“...” Rocky walked over to the two robots and transformed into a stone sculpture of my first three animal friends before falling asleep.

“Hm?” Meloetta looked down at the three sleeping allies. “Mele.” With a shrug, she fell asleep on the balcony rail.

“Well…” Celestia chuckled. “It seems like your friends have pretty low standards when it comes to sleeping spots. What about you, Kirby? Care to sleep with them?”

I shook my head. “Poyo.” I take sleeping seriously. I only sleep in a bed or under a tree, except when I get the Sleep Ability, in which case I fall asleep on the spot.

“Understandable. In that case, we can lead you to the guest bedroom instead. Would that be to your liking?”

A guest bedroom? I had no idea the princesses were gonna be that generous! I didn’t feel worthy of that, but I accepted the offer anyway so I wouldn’t sound rude. “Yeah!”

“It pleases me to hear that.” Celestia turned towards Twilight. “Would you please escort Kirby to the guest room? I wouldn’t want him to wake up sore and grumpy, or else he just might inhale someone.”

“Of course, Your Majesty,” Twilight answered. “Not that he would want to inhale one of the ponies in your castle. He seems too innocent to do that. The only things I’ve seen him inhale were either food or obstacles, namely Queen Chrysalis and that wall Discord put up to protect himself from Kirby.” She opened her left wing and lowered it to the floor. “Hop on, Kirby. Let’s get you on to bed.”

“Poyo!” The wing was probably meant to be a ramp, but I didn't need it. I just jumped onto Twilight’s back, causing her to be surprised at first but calm down after realizing how light I was. Once we really got to be friends, maybe a piggyback like this could cause us to sync up like it does with my animal friends and other good pals. Or maybe not.

At the moment, all I was really thinking about was sleep, so I didn’t really pay much attention to where we went. The instant I saw the bed, I jumped right in and was out like a light bulb. Time to have some sweet dreams...

Chapter 13: Dreamland Away From Dream Land (Kirby)

Author's Note

Spoilers for Kirby: Planet Robobot ahead! You have been warned.

Chapter 13: Dreamland Away From Dream Land (Kirby)

Ah, there’s nothing quite like flying the Warp Star to and fro on a peaceful evening in my home planet Pop Star. Whenever I soar like this, I always have the perfect view of the world around me. The Rainbow Islands, Bubbly Clouds, Dyna Blade’s nest up in the mountains… I could never get tired of my home!

I descended to get a good look at my reflection in the ocean. I waved at the jolly pink puffball looking back at me. “You’re looking happy as ever, Kirby!” I said.

“Same goes to you, Kirby!” my reflection replied. This is one of my favorite things about dreams: anything can happen. Oh, and I can talk well in my dreams. “I don’t think they get much friendlier than you do. Keep up the good work!”

“You bet I will!” On that note, I took off and flew high into the sky. Once I was up in outer space, I gazed back at the star-shaped planet I call home. The giant Dreamstalk, fully in bloom, caught my attention as usual. Now that I was thinking about it, I started to reminisce about the Queen Sectonia incident. “Gee, things are usually pretty peaceful at home, but I wonder what Pop Star would be like if I wasn’t around to protect it from villains…”

“You protect your home planet from villains?” The moon rose up behind the biggest bloom on the Dreamstalk, and Princess Luna came from it. “I understand that you can inhale your foes, but that alone doesn’t seem adequate to defeat more threatening villains. How could a single puffball with inhaling powers dispatch bigger and stronger enemies?”

“Well, inhaling isn’t the only power I have. Check this out!” A poisonous blue blob shaped like a frog’s head floated into view, and I inhaled it. Gulp! Then I jumped into the air, flipping a bunch of times. After I stopped flipping, a barrel of dangerous chemicals fell on me. Nothing happened for a few seconds… until something corroded the barrel. When it was weakened enough, I broke through by riding a wave of sludge, showing Luna that I now had a hat made of toxic stuff. “Pretty cool, huh? I can copy the powers of enemies by swallowing them. I got the Poison Copy Ability from eating that blob, so I’m now Poison Kirby!”

“Copying abilities? That is undoubtedly a brilliant power, but surely even that must have its limits. Tell me, have there ever been any enemies that you had to take more drastic measures to defeat?”

“Yep, that’s happened with pretty much every super-evil villain I’ve come across. For instance, the very first true villain I ever encountered…” We flew down to the Fountain of Dreams. A blue orb with a star pattern appeared from the fountain, and it transformed into a floating wizard with shades and no feet. I dropped my Ability in the form of a star, and I grabbed the star-shaped wand from the fountain. “The Nightmare, who invaded the Fountain of Dreams to torment all the citizens of Dream Land. I had to use the Star Rod, which gives everyone in Dream Land the ability to dream, to destroy the Nightmare once and for all.” We chased him to the moon, where I quickly disposed of him with several hits from the Star Rod. We flew away to avoid the resulting explosion. “The only drawback to defeating him was that the explosion from his defeat blew up a huge chunk of the moon. That’s why it’s always shaped like a crescent.”

Luna looked up at the moon in sadness. “It pains me to see the moon in such an awful condition. But I suppose it could not be helped. I congratulate you on defeating that vicious enemy.” I could tell Luna felt guilty about something. Her eyes shot to and fro, probably trying to think of a way to get her mind off of whatever was bothering her. "If I may ask, were there any villains you’ve enjoyed battling or had an entertaining way to bring them down?"

“Definitely! For the first question, my favorite villain to fight isn’t a villain anymore.” I led the moon princess into a menacing castle. We walked into the throne room, where a bunch of orange creatures without mouths were bringing food to a fat blue penguin wearing a red robe. “Meet King Dedede! He stole all the food in Dream Land a long time ago, so I taught him a lesson. He’s stopped being bad ever since, but he dreams every day of winning a battle against me for once.” I looked at him. He was chowing down like an eating machine. “Or eating stuff.”

The king stopped eating a chicken leg when he saw me. “Kirby?! What’re you doing in my dream? This better be important, or else I’ll have to--” As soon as he saw Luna, he dropped the chicken leg. “Oh no… The Nightmare’s back, as a magic horse?! This is Dream Land! I’m supposed to be having a good dream, not a bad one!” He turned and yelled at the orange thing wearing a blue bandana, “Yo, Bandana Dee! Get me the Star Rod so we can clobber it!”

“Uh, Great King…” Bandana Waddle Dee replied, “I don’t think that’s the Nightmare. It’s a girl, while the Nightmare is a guy. Besides, Kirby seems to be friends with her. Just because she’s dark doesn’t mean she’s evil. Meta Knight proved that.”

“Eh, you make a good point there, but just in case…” Grabbing his wooden hammer, King Dedede jumped down from his throne and took a fighting stance. “Who are you, and why are you intruding on my dream?”

“Are you questioning my authority?” Luna clicked her tongue. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. You are a king, yet you don’t appear to know that I happen to be a fellow ruler. I am Princess Luna, and I rule over Canterlot alongside my sister Princess Celestia.”

Dedede shot a confused look at Bandana Dee. “Do you have any clue what the heck a Canterlot is? It sure sounds like some kinda happy-go-lucky city that a kid made up in their imagination to me.”

“What was that?!” Opening her wings and lighting her horn, Luna also took a fighting stance. “You dare to insult our home city? It’s treason, then!”

Panicking, Bandana Dee jumped in front of the king. “Please, have mercy on my king! He’s just uninformed about Equestria and Planet Equus in general! I tried really hard to get him to learn about your home planet, but he refused. He thought a planet populated mainly by ponies sounded…” He gulped. “...childish.”

“I see no reason to show mercy to someone who directly insulted not only our home city but also our home planet.” Luna forced Bandana Dee away with her magic. “Come, you pathetic excuse for a king! We shall do battle!”

“Challenging the mighty King Dedede to a battle, huh? Alright, you asked for it.” A metal mask appeared on the king’s face, and his hammer was replaced with that mechanical one he fought me with a long time ago. Then, the throne room changed into the boxing ring we often fight on. The seats were loaded with audience members. “My Dedede Hammer 2.0 and I are gonna give you the beatdown of a lifetime!”

“Okay, I think I’d better wake up now, before Luna beats up the king…” Bandana Dee impaled himself with his spear, and he vanished in a puff of smoke and stars.

The battle was over before King Dedede even got a chance to attack. With some kicks, teleports, telekinesis, and a whole lot of lasers, the king was down for the count. “I give up… Uncle…” He vanished in a puff of smoke and stars as well.

A drop of sweat rolled down my cheek. “Oh, right, I forgot to tell you that King Dedede is super selfish. You could’ve at least given him a chance to win…”

Luna sighed. “My apologies, Kirby. As one of the two princesses who rule over Canterlot, I care very deeply about my home land. I’m also more prone to battle than my sister, so I’ve been both positively and negatively affected by the lack of nightmares to deal with. My battle skills have been fading away, and that’s getting to me. That’s why I always jump at the chance to fight, and why I didn’t show mercy to the king.”

“It’s okay, Luna.” I gave her an affectionate pat on the back. “Sometimes, King Dedede just needs to get his butt kicked every once in a while to keep him on his toes.”

“Thank you once more, Kirby.” We walked out of the castle and headed up the Dreamstalk to sit on one of the leaves. “If it isn’t too much trouble, would you show me one of the more entertaining skills you’ve used to take down a mighty foe? I’m sure you want to get your mind off of how viciously I defeated the king.”

“Sure, I’d love to! What're you in the mood for?" A few ghostly images appeared in the sky. One was of me about to cleave a certain wizard with a giant sword, another was of me rainbow–colored and inhaling a laser beam, and yet another was of me in a pink suit of mechanical armor flying towards something. "These are just a few of—"

"Show me the metal suit! NOW!" Luna shouted in excitement.

I flinched from her intensity. "Okay... You should prepare to be surprised, though.” I leaped down from the leaf and landed right next to a dull gray suit of mechanical armor. “A couple of years ago, an organization called the Haltmann Works Company invaded Pop Star in order to extract all of its natural resources. When I set out to stop the HWC, I saw that some of the employees used these suits of Invader Armor to attack.” I jumped in and pressed some buttons, and the armor got up and changed its color scheme to fit mine. “I took them down and chose to use the armor for myself. I call it… the Robobot Armor!”

“I’m liking this already!” Luna’s eyes sparkled. “Tell me, how did you use it to defeat the villain?”

“I’ll get to that in a moment. But first, you need to know that the Armor changes powers depending on its pilot. I can copy stuff, so my Robobot Armor can scan stuff to change modes!”

"Noted."

I continued, “After realizing how corrupt the president of the HWC had become, the secretary Susie changed sides to teach him a lesson.” I pointed at a black, winged ship up in the sky. "I used the Robobot Armor she offered me to scan Meta Knight’s ship, the Battleship Halberd. It literally transformed into a Kirby version of the Halberd, so I used it to scrap the Mother Computer behind the whole operation!" Instead of dreaming up Star Dream, I had a better idea and just made my armor bring up footage of the battle against Star Dream’s first form, a one-eyed robot with wings. “That’s the Mother Computer, Star Dream. I had to fight it four times in a row, actually.”

“Such a small warship in comparison to a Mother Computer, which it had to take on four times in a row? It’s a wonder that you made it out without the Armor turning into scrap metal!” Luna put a hoof to her chin. “That is, unless it literally used the same attacks each time.”

“Nope, I fought it in four different phases. That’s the first phase, against the computer itself.” The footage fast-forwarded to Star Dream fused with a planet-sized sphere of metal. “That’s the second phase, versus the mothership, Access Ark.” Then it fast-forwarded to the metal on the front breaking off, revealing a face like a cat. “And that’s the third phase, where we discovered that Star Dream was actually a Clockwork Star, a machine that can grant wishes.”

“A wish-granting machine? And yet it looks so docile…”

“Don’t ask. Even I don’t get it.” Star Dream seemed to be defeated, but then it fired a laser that hit the Robobot Armor’s right wing. “Meta Knight had to separate my armor from the Halberd so I could finish off Star Dream in an awesome way…” My armor was ejected, so I pressed a button in the middle of the Robobot Armor’s dashboard which caused a giant drill to activate. I used the drill to break through each of Star Dream’s heart-shaped barriers.

“The machine that pierces the stars... Robo Drill Breaker!”

The Robobot Armor drilled right through Star Dream from the top and out the bottom, causing it to explode.

Luna looked like the green-eyed monster attacked her. “I… I’m just going to leave your dream if you don’t mind. I fear that if I stay around much longer, I may grow even more envious of you and your spectacular adventures.” She flew away, back to the moon.

“See ya when I wake up! If you visit my friends’ dreams, I hope you have fun!” I took the Warp Star back to my home, where I hopped in bed to sleep away the rest of my dream.

Chapter 14: The Plan (Kirby)

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 15: Gimmicks and Grandeur (Gim)

Shortly after we all exited the castle, the guards moved back in front of the gates to make sure nobody slipped by without notice.

When we had walked a sufficient distance from the castle, I got off of Twilight to relieve her of my weight. "There you go! Feel better now that you don't have to carry the heavy metal burden that is my body?"

"I was actually doing fine due to the physical endurance given by my status as an alicorn, but thanks anyway, Gim!" Twilight looked at my blazing toy. "Before we figure out where to go, I'd like to better understand your yo-yo. Can you tell me more about it?"

"No prob, Twilight! I'd love to tell you about this prized possession of mine!" I brandished my fiery yo-yo, keeping it a safe distance from the alicorn and dragon. "It's tricky to make a yo-yo do its thing at first, but once you get the hang of it, you're on the road to learning all kinds of sweet tricks!"

"Tricks? So, you can perform different techniques with a yo-yo?" Twilight asked.

"Yep! You saw me pull off two such techniques when I punished Rainbow for her rudeness regarding my weapon: a Yo-Yo Orbit followed by a Yo-Yo Throw!"

Spike raised an eyebrow. "But you did three tricks, not two."

"That first one wasn't a trick. It was an attack called the Hammer Drop."

"What's the difference?"

"You can't perform the Hammer Drop without a target, so it's an attack. Yo-yo tricks can be done regardless of whether you have something to hit or not. Think of it this way: Heroes attack bad guys in action-packed media like comic books. On the other hand, talented performers use tricks to impress the crowd while on a stage in a theatre. Performances are judged by technique. Attack, action. Trick, technique. Got it?"

"I got it now. Yo-yo attacks are used for bad guys only, but tricks can also be used in performances, right?"

"Yep, you've got it down pat!"

Twilight asked, "Is there a trick that must be learned first before you can do other ones?"

"But of course! The trick you are about to see is the simplest one of them all..." I flicked my wrist down, causing the yo-yo to unwind as it rolled down. It continued to spin for a couple of seconds after reaching the end of the string, at which point I flicked my wrist back up to rewind the yo-yo and make it return to my hand. "That's called the Yo-Yo Throw. You got to flick your wrist just right to make the yo-yo go down and up the string. Otherwise, it'll just go down and stop once it's fully unwound."

"What an amazing concept!" Twilight resisted the temptation to lean closer to the yo-yo, which was still ablaze. "It uses the power of inertia to its advantage, so it can keep spinning if you move your hand the right way!"

"I know, right? The laws of physics are not only a force to be reckoned with, but can also be utilized for fun and play!"

"That's cool and all, but I have another question," Spike said. "Why do you only have three fingers instead of four like me or five like humans?"

I shrugged after putting away my yo-yo. "I dunno. You'll have to ask the workers that make GM-series robots. But why would I need a fourth or fifth finger? I'm fine with three, because that's enough to give a thumbs-up, make a peace sign, or play some good old roshambo!"

That last phrase brought the alicorn and dragon to ask yet another question. "What's roshambo?"

"Just another way of saying rock-paper-scissors, which is a game that creatures with at least three fingers or claws can play." I explained the game to Twilight as we casually walked around Canterlot. "It's really easy to play, but it mostly relies on luck and reading your opponent. To start each round, the two players shake their fists three times, once for each word in rock-paper-scissors--or each syllable in roshambo--as they chant said phrase or word. Then they shake a fourth time, shaping their hand into any of three different forms..." I clenched my fist. "Rock!" I opened my hand completely. "Paper!" I made a peace sign, with the two fingers opened away from me. "And scissors! Each one trumps another: rock smashes scissors, scissors cuts paper, and paper covers rock! In the event that each player throws the same hand, they repeat the process until they have different ones."

"Ohh, so roshambo is just a fancy way of saying rock-paper-scissors!" Spike said. "Yeah, I've played that a bunch of times with Smolder. She usually wins, though." His eyes brightened. "Hey, you sound like a pro at rock-paper-scissors. Do you think you could maybe train me?"

"Train you in one of the simplest luck-based one-on-one games in the universe? As much as I would love to train you, it isn't so much about skill as it is guessing what your opponent is going to do. Simple beings such as you and I can't read minds, but that doesn't mean you're hopeless. I bet you have a friend or two who pays close attention to detail and can stay calm in tricky times, so asking that friend is your best bet."

"I sure do have that kind of friend!" Spike subtly glanced up at Twilight. "Isn't that right, princess of friendship?"

Twilight nodded. "You're looking at her right now, Gim. But that kind of training will have to wait. It's time to figure out where in Canterlot we should take you!"

"You got that right!" I graciously accepted a brochure that Twilight levitated in front of me. I opened it up and took a peek. "Let's have a look-see... Library of Magic? If only my bud NESP was here, he'd love that place! ...An art gallery? While I can appreciate art, I'm not what you would call an art enthusiast, so that's a no. There's gotta be someplace here that would be ideal for a one-handed robot that wields a yo-yo like nobody's business...!"

My optical lens focused on a large building in the brochure that seemed perfect for a large performance. I pointed at it with my finger. "Is... Is that a theater?"

Twilight nodded. "Yep, that's Canterlot Theater, where many major performances such as the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant takes place. Why do you ask? There aren't any performances scheduled for today."

A massive theater, where dozens, no, hundreds of ponies can watch those who are on stage act out plays or perform stylish moves that have a high probability of winning the crowd over...

Bingo.

"Well, guess what? That won't be the case for long..." I took out my yo-yo and did a stylish Gazer Spiral, thrusting myself into the air with the yo-yo and striking a pose at the peak of my jump.

"...because it's showtime!"

Chapter 16: The Name That He Knows (Kirby)

As much as I wanted to go with Pinkie Pie, I knew Twilight had the right idea pairing me up with Fluttershy. The yellow Pegasus seemed like the kind of pony who's really nervous around new faces, but she really brightened up when she first saw me smile at the group back when I woke up on this world. She must really care about cute creatures and animals.

Oh yeah, and she's a really gentle flier. Riding her was like riding my Warp Star, but softer and less jerk-y.

And much less likely to crash, as I learned when she slowed to a stop and landed quietly on the ground at an intersection in the middle of Ponyville.

"Well, here we are, Kirby," Fluttershy said as I hopped off of her back. "Ponyville is a nice and peaceful place where everypony gets along. I think you'll like it here!"

"Poyo!" I beamed. Now that things were starting to settle down again, I could finally relax and have a look around.

But where to begin? Just minutes after I had left Twilight's castle with her to fetch some apples, I discovered that Ponyville was a really big town with a lot of things to do compared to my home town of Dream Land. In Dream Land, there were Dedede's castle, the forest where Whispy Woods lived, and my home.

On the other hand, Ponyville had a boutique, a farm, a market, the castle where Twilight lived, a mysterious forest, a whole school made for the sole reason of teaching creatures the power of friendship...

"Huh?" I lost my train of thought when a sweet scent hit me. If I was a Pokemon, my evasiveness would have dropped twice, because that's how much I loved the smell. "Poyo..."

I must find out where that scent is coming...

Oh. That wasn't so hard. I expected to go on a long and hard journey like I did to rescue my stolen cake, but instead it was just coming from a crumb trail leading to a nearby house.

"Um, Kirby?" Fluttershy asked as I picked up one of the crumbs. "Don't you think that's a little suspicious? Usually when there's a food trail leading somewhere, it's left there either for someone to remember where they went, or to lure something. And I don't think you'd have to use a trail to get back to your home, so..."

I gave her a disappointed stare. "Poyo." I may be young, but I'm not that gullible or stupid.

I popped the crumb into my mouth, eager to savor the taste of... Gulp!

...

I narrowed my eyes. "Poyo..." Wait a minute... Really creamy texture? Pudding-like taste? Didn't bring back memories of my adventure that ended with an anticlimactic fight against a black star with an eye?

...That wasn't a crumb of strawberry shortcake. It was a crumb of strawberry cheesecake. Being a huge foodie, I can tell these kinds of things. Ask my friends, they'd say the same thing about me. They'd also say that I love strawberry shortcake, and that's a fact.

Which is why I ditched the cheesecake trail and walked off to Twilight's castle instead, with Fluttershy following behind me.

I thought I heard a door opening, but I shrugged it off. What really mattered was that Twilight's castle was safe and free of evil transforming bug queens, and I was gonna be the one to scout out the place!

"Excuse me, Kirby?" Fluttershy asked after two full minutes of me opening and closing doors. "Are you lost?"

I shook my head. "Uh uh."

"...Trying to find something?"

"Hmm... Uh uh."

"Not really? Well, then... why else would you be opening every door you see and looking inside?"

"Poyo!" I closed the door I had just opened, the closet, and gave the Pegasus my full attention. I stood upright with a serious face and paced left and right like a soldier. "Ha-tu! Ha-tu! Ha-tu!"

Fluttershy took a few seconds to figure out that little game of charades. "...Oh! You're making sure Chrysalis hasn't made it back to the castle yet, and once you've ensured she isn't here, you want to stay and keep watch for Chrysalis!"

"Yeah!"

"That's a pretty good idea. The castle doesn't have any defenses against bad guys, so having someone to patrol it would--"

Thump! Slam! The sound of something hitting the ground and a closing door rang throughout the castle.

We turned around to look at what made that noise. All the doors were still shut, but I saw a small object on the floor. I slowly walked up to it.

A toy microphone.

I had an idea. It was a pretty dangerous and risky idea, but still an idea. The kind of idea that adults wouldn't dare to think of, but that a young kid may think of right off the top of their head.

I inhaled the microphone and gained one of my favorite Abilities: Mike. I would usually take my time with a fun transformation sequence, but the possible threat of Chrysalis called for a quick change. I instantly donned a pair of headphones and looked at the microphone that appeared in my hand.

I gave it a couple of taps, getting a feedback whine from it. "Poyo, poyo..." Testing, one, two...

Suddenly, one of the doors swung open, and a dark brown colt with a lighter brown mane and tail dashed out of it and bolted off, his propeller hat barely staying on his head.

He had the right idea. "Poyo!" I pointed at Fluttershy, then waved towards the direction that the colt ran away. "Poyo."

"You... want me to follow him? Um, okay. I'm not sure what your plan is, but if you say so..." She did as I instructed, going after the colt.

A few seconds after they were both out of sight, I turned to the opposite direction and prepared my first tune. I replaced my headphones with a white baseball cap and my microphone with a megaphone. I took a deep breath, and...

"POOYAAAAHH!!" My songs don't always burst eardrums like this, but they can if I want them to.

For my next earsplitting song, I returned to my headphones and desk microphone. I turned back to where the two ponies ran off, and...

"HEYAAAAAHHH!!!"

Before my final scream, I headed further into the castle. I went straight for the room that I thought was the closest to the center, and that was the Map Room.

I jumped onto the map table, and I changed into a spiky green Mohawk and grabbed a stand microphone.

To prepare for my grand finale, I crouched down and held my left hand outwards, towards the ceiling. It was time for the countdown.

Three...

Two...

One...

I tossed the mike into the air, then jumped up and grabbed it before it landed.

"CHESTOOOOO!!!"

The deadly noise echoed throughout the castle for several seconds, seeking out eardrums to murder.

My hat and microphone disappeared along with my Ability as I regained my breath from that last song.

Several more seconds passed before Fluttershy and the young colt ambled back to me, holding their heads in dizziness.

"Ugh..." the colt moaned. "Probably should've just plain got out of the castle instead of fleeing to the opposite side..." Poor guy. If he was my friend, he could've joined me in a Fatal Chorus to avoid getting his ears hurt.

Fluttershy wasn't much better. "Oh, my ears... Kirby, you sure do have a powerful voice for that... Song Ability?"

I'd correct her, but she was kinda traumatized by the loud noise, so I instead just sheepishly rubbed the back of my head. "Poyo..."

After the two pulled themselves together, the colt started talking. "I still can't believe this. I actually got to meet the one and only Kirbay!"

"Poyo?" Did he have me confused with somebody else?

"I'm pretty sure you mean Kirby," Fluttershy replied.

"Nah, it's definitely Kirbay. Take a look at this!" The colt took out a flat, rectangular container made of plastic. On the front was a round pink creature with hands and red feet like me, but it looked fuzzy and had round eyes like one of Queen Sectonia's bug minions. Behind the creature were a bunch of costumed ponies and a young blue dragon riding a wave of water. At the top was some kind of title: Kirbay's Stellar Friends. "See? That guy's got to be... Uh..."

His excitement faded away as he took a closer look at me.

"...Oh. Now I feel pretty silly. I just thought that because you were round and pink and could copy powers by eating stuff, you were the same dude as this wingless parasprite in my game. So... What did you say your name was?"

"Kirby!" I answered.

"Kirby? That's really weird. Same powers, similar appearance and names, out to save the world... It can't just be a coincidence that you remind me of Kirbay!"

"Excuse me," Fluttershy said. "Maybe you should introduce yourself before you get too far ahead?"

"Right, sorry about that." The colt put a hoof on his chest. "My name's Button Mash. Nice to meet ya, Kirby!"

"Poyo!" I shook Button's hoof.

"Now, where was I... Oh yeah, I was gonna thank you for copying my toy microphone to use your Mike Ability! At first I just wanted to make sure you really were Kirbay, but now that I knew Chrysalis could be here, I realized the Mike Ability could be useful. If she was here, then she'd definitely not be around now because she would be scared off by how loud your singing is."

I giggled. He's not wrong.

"Still, I feel kinda on edge since there's the threat of Queen Chrysalis. And... Fluttershy, didn't you tell me there was another villain who's new to Equestria?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Yeah, I think his name was Hyness. At least, that's what the friendly newcomers to Equestria told us. You remember what he looked and acted like, Kirby?"

"Uh huh!" I opened the closet door and dove in. I came out wearing a white hooded cloak that covered me except for my eyes. "Po... yo...?" I spookily swayed from left to right, sending a chill down Fluttershy's spine. "Po... Yo! POYO!" Then I wildly failed my arms around, making the Pegasus hide behind Button Mash. "Poyopoyopoyo! Poyo poyo! POYO POYO POOOYOOOOOO!!!"

"O-okay..." Button squeaked after my impression of Hyness. "Eerie and mysterious, but easily angered and wild when he's angry... I got it!"

"Got what?" Fluttershy asked, coming out of hiding.

"I just had a crazy hypothesis. So Kirby's super similar to Kirbay, right? What if... he's actually the real-life version of Kirbay from another planet, and somepony caught wind of his adventures and inspired other ponies to make games and stories based on them?!"

"Games and stories that were changed to fit the culture and citizens of Equestria, and also because the ponies who apparently heard about Kirby didn't fully understand the whole situation?"

"Exactly! That's why Kirby's name was changed to Kirbay, and why Kirbay is a parasprite while Kirby is something completely different! And if my hypothesis is actually right..." Button triumphantly raised his front hoof. "The Equestrian version of Hyness is Roiall, a half-insane tapir who learned how to use magic while he was still with the magic tribe of the Ancient Ones! Whoo! Am I good or what? I just solved a mystery!"

"Poyo...?" I felt happy for the little guy, but I was still a bit concerned about his nonchalant reaction to the threat of both Chrysalis and Hyness.

"I have a question, Button Mash," Fluttershy said. "Why are you wondering what Hyness looked and acted like? That shouldn't have to be on the minds of little foals like you."

"That's where you're wrong." Button put on a serious frown and turned so that he faced the direction of the castle's entrance. "Follow me, guys. I'm a gamer, so my Kirbay know-how may help you..." He lowered the pitch of his voice. "...get ready for the next battle."

Chapter 17: Meta Knight's Intermission Returns (Meta Knight)

"And remember, you'll have to deal with a horde of enemies after using the platforms to cross the lava gaps before you get the chance to meet him. Are you sure you can handle the literal and metaphorical heat?"

"Of course," I replied to Zan Partizanne. "I am no stranger to lava pools, meteor showers, or hordes of powerful foes. As a Star Warrior who strives to become the strongest in the galaxy, I always look forward to tough challenges."

Zan nodded. "If you say so. We will be waiting here for your return, hopefully with the Chef Kawasaki. Just make it quick, because I could really use a boost in energy after that fight with the stubby little pink thing."

"..." I shot her a disapproving look for insulting Kirby, one of the strongest beings known to Pop Star, before spreading my wings and taking flight.

Dawn had come after a long night of anxiety over Kirby's safety, and we were starting to grow hungry. Zan Partizanne knew where a Chef Kawasaki could be found nearby, so she requested that I fly to Star Lavadom and recruit the Chef there. Although it is good for a warrior to fast by abstaining from eating, an empty stomach makes it difficult to stay sane, and insanity was the opposite of what we needed in these trying...

Hm? A yellow, slowly growing glimmer in the distance... Could it be?

"Slow down, Great King! You shouldn't be flying this fast right after waking up!"

"I can't help it, Bandana Dee! This here Warp Star's way too hard for either o' us to—"

Wham!

I attempted to dodge the Warp Star, but its erratic movement meant it still managed to strike me. The bumbling King Dedede and his servant Bandana Waddle Dee were tossed off the Warp Star, and the three of us careened back towards the Divine Terminus.

"Waaaaahh!"

We had a rough landing, but I landed on my feet while King Dedede's belly cushioned Bandana Dee's fall.

Lucario and I chuckled at their blunder while Zan and NESP watched them from a fair distance. "Nice of you to drop in, King Dedede and Bandana Waddle Dee," Lucario said. "What led you to fly all the way out here into the depths of space?"

Dedede looked up at Lucario. "Well, if it ain't that fox guy who hangs around Kirby a whole bunch! Y'know, I really could use yer help right now. If ya don't mind, that is."

"You know these creatures?" Zan asked Lucario.

"I do." Lucario held out his paws to help Dedede and Bandana Dee up. "Meet King Dedede, ruler of Dream Land, and his servant Bandana Waddle Dee. You two, meet Zan Partizanne, one of the three mage sisters who work for Hyness, a villain who wants to free the Dark God from the Jamba Heart."

"A villain?! Why didn't you--"

"Hey!" I grabbed Dedede's arm to prevent him from striking Zan with his hammer. "Now isn't the time for battling, Dedede. We've set aside our differences for now, because..." I used my other hand to point at NESP. "...this helper of Kirby's cast a spell that accidentally sent the puffball and his other two helpers to an unknown planet along with Hyness."

The king lowered his arm. "Oh... okay."

Bandana Dee shook Zan's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Partizanne."

The electric general replied, "No need for formalities, I'm just as much a servant as you are. You can simply call me Zan."

"Alright, Zan. My friends call me Bandana Dee." Bandana Dee turned towards NESP. "So, you accidentally sent not only Hyness but also Kirby and his other helpers to another planet? I'm really sorry your spell didn't go as planned."

NESP rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah... I meant to only send Hyness there, but I'm still pretty inexperienced with teleporting others. Since I made such a big mistake, we have to wait for them to get back."

Dedede gave an annoyed look. "Yeah, yeah, we get it. Ya done goofed, so the four o' you have to wait for your buddies to come back, right?"

Zan glared at Dedede. "Hyness isn't my buddy, he's my savior! He rescued me and my sisters from dying!"

Dedede did a double take. "I wasn't talking about--wait, what?"

"You heard me right. He rescued me from a thunderstorm, Flamberge from a fire, and Francisca from a blizzard! Ever since, we served him and called him our savior. We are indebted to him, hence why we are trying to help him free the Dark Lord."

As heartwarming as her story was, she was still doing the wrong thing, and we were certain of that. I made sure she knew that. "We may have put aside our differences for now, but know that when Hyness and Kirby's group return to the Divine Terminus, we will return to being enemies. The Star Allies will surely put an end to the wrath of the Dark Lord."

"There's no way to be sure that your friends will stop the Dark Lord except to wait to see what happens," she replied calmly. "Until that time comes, consider us to be mere acquaintances and nothing more. Now then..." She pointed at the king and his servant. "State your business here."

"Whoa, now! No need to get feisty with us!" King Dedede put his hands up in fear. "I was just taking a little ride on a Warp Star with Bandana Dee here to get our minds off a real bad nightmare we had last night."

"A nightmare?" I asked. "But the Fountain of Dreams makes sure everyone has good dreams each night. The Nightmare Wizard couldn't have returned, could he?"

"That's what I thought! So I headed right to the Fountain the moment I woke up, but it was just fine! Crystal-clear water, Star Rod on the top, everything. What a weird way to start the day, right?"

This didn't sit right with me. The Fountain of Dreams is the source of all the dreams of the citizens of Pop Star, and no Nightmares had infiltrated it. So why could the King and Bandana Waddle Dee have had a bad dream? "...Can you describe the dream?"

"Sure can! It started out as usual, with me eating a bunch of food while Bandana guarded my throne, but then something out of the ordinary happened..."

"What was it?" NESP asked.

"You ain't gonna believe this, but... Kirby came waltzing into the throne room, and he wasn't alone. Right next to him was this really dark blue horse who looked like a spawn of the Nightmare!"

"...!" This caught the attention of me and Lucario. "Did it have a long horn and wings?" we asked.

"How'd ya know?!" King Dedede gasped.

Lucario and I looked at each other with a knowing grin. Bandana Dee had a similar look on his face.

"Bandana Waddle Dee," I said. "That glimmer of ecstasy in your eyes... You seem to know what we're talking about. Would you share your thoughts for us to hear?"

The king's number-one soldier nodded enthusiastically.

"Great King, Zan Partizanne, NESP... Kirby, his friends, and Hyness are in Equestria, on the planet Equus!"

King Dedede gave Bandana Dee a look of sheer horror.

"WHAT?! That silly little fantasy land you've been telling me about... It's all real?!"

"Yep! From what you and Meta Knight have been saying, it sounds like Equestria is as real as the ground we're standing on."

"And that nighttime horsey who done beat me up in my dream?"

"Also real."

Dedede stood speechless for several seconds.

And then he desperately grabbed NESP by the neck. "Please tell me you can teleport me as far from that place as possible. I don't want that horsey waltzing over to my castle and clobbering me in real life."

The psychic boy nervously sweated. "I could if I knew where it was... Sorry, King..."

A look of hopelessness on his face, King Dedede abruptly let go of NESP. "I'm doomed..." He started hyperventilating as he aimlessly ran in circles. "I don't wanna get my butt whooped by a super tough magical horsey again! What do I do? What do I--"

A beige paw came from the King's left and handed him a paper bag.

"Oh, good idea." He took it and breathed in and out of it a few times, soothing his nerves some. "Thanks for helping me calm down, Lucario."

Lucario responded with a raised eyebrow. "...What color are my paws?"

The king deadpanned at him. "Do I look like a preschooler to you? Them paws of yours are blue and black! And that paw that just handed me a paper bag was... uh..." He stopped and realized his mistake.

Cautiously, he turned his head left to look at who gave him the bag.

But there was no one there.

"Psst! Look above you."

Dedede followed the instructions of the voice and looked up. He was understandably startled when the face of an amalgamation of various creatures was inches away from his own face. "Ack!"

He fell onto his rear, causing the creature to quite literally laugh his head off, much to the surprise of Zan and NESP. "Ha ha ha! Boy, I love getting the jump on innocent creatures!"

The king shuffled backwards before standing up and gripping his hammer. "Just what the heck are you?!"

"No need to get aggressive with me!" After putting its head back on, the creature performed an odd gesture that resembled half-bowing, half-crouching several times. "I'm Equestria's local deity of chaos. I used to cause trouble to no end, but then the most wonderful pony convinced me to stop terrorizing citizens with my insane antics and instead have a little harmless mischief that doesn't put anyone in danger." He handed the King a rectangular card. "Discord, at your service. Here's my business card."

"But this is... a Jack of Spades," Dedede wondered while holding the card. "With you on it instead of a normal Jack."

"Exactly! My business is playing with others!"

The king gave Discord a bemused stare. "Right... So, what're you doing here anyway?"

Discord took out a few sheets of paper. "Well, let's see... Oh, yeah! I came here to let you all know how your pal Kirby is doing."

A smile formed behind my mask. "I suppose he is faring well in Equestria?"

"And we have a winner!" I got showered with confetti. "Yessir, Kirby is doing just fine. At the moment he's scouting out the land with his friends and the Bearers of Harmony."

"Scouting?" Bandana Dee asked. "What's wrong, did they hear that a local villain is ready to terrorize Equestria?"

"You're a smart one!" The draconequus held up a mug shot of Hyness and the insectoid pony Chrysalis. "Apparently this white-robed guy named Hyness ran into Queen Chrysalis, and now they're plotting to take down the Mane Six as well as the Kirby gang."

"Another bad guy for Kirby to clobber, you say?" Dedede sat down with a smile on his face. "You know what that means, Bandana Dee. Fetch some food from my stash, because we're staying put right here until Kirby triumphantly returns!"

My stomach rumbled again.

"If it's all the same to you, can you bring some food for the rest of us too?"

"Leave that to me!" Discord snapped his fingers, and a buffet's worth of plates of food appeared before us. With another snap, a television appeared. "And this TV will come on when the big battle arrives. You're welcome."

Before we could reply, he hitched a ride on a UFO and took off.

Dedede stared at all the food before him. "...You know, I'm starting to like that Discord guy."

Bandana Dee shook his head. "Don't get used to it. He always likes to prank others, so don't be surprised if that cooked chicken flies away, or if the French fries start criticizing your eating habits and give you zero stars."

"..."

Chapter 18: The Master Maestro's Equestrian Debut (Meloetta)

At last, our destination came into view. It was a wondrous city in the clouds, with many fantastic attractions and amenities to discover.

"Here we are!" Rainbow Dash told me. "This is Las Pegasus, the second most awesome city in the sky! Where do you want us to land?" She pointed her hoof at a large round island that had hot air balloons stationed atop the massive pedestal in the middle of the floating island. "We could set out from where hot air balloons stop right over there."

"Hm?" The island certainly looked like a nice place to start out from, but I was concerned about the publicity. "Mele..."

My nervousness caused me to turn invisible, surprising the cyan Pegasus I was riding. "Whoa, you never told me you could do that! Okay, maybe we could go somewhere that doesn't have any ponies there. Like, uh... Well, there's..." Her ears folded back in disappointment. "I got nothing. Las Pegasus has ponies everywhere."

I regained my opacity as I giggled at her inability to figure out a private place in Las Pegasus to fly over to.

Rainbow's eyes settled on the hot air balloon station again. "What about... under the hot air balloon place? All the action takes place on top of stuff because ponies can't walk upside-down. But you and I can fly, so we can sneak beneath floating places."

"Meloetta!" Now we're talking.

We flew beneath the island, hidden from everyone else.

"So..." Rainbow asked me, "Watcha want to do here? Not much that I can think of."

I smiled at her. "Mele, melele. Me Meloetta!"

She gave me a confused look, being unable to understand Pokemon language. "Right... Well, whatever you're gonna do, go ahead and do it."

And I obliged.

I flew to the center of the island's underside and cleared my throat. Glowing musical bars cloaked my body as I began to sing.

La, la la la, la! La, la la la, la,
Why am I singing this song?

As I sang, the music literally transformed my body. However, the radiant glow made it difficult for Rainbow Dash to see what's going on.

La, la la la, la! La, la la la, la...
Harmony magic!

The musical bars disappeared when I wrapped up my song, and Rainbow was amazed by my new look. I had taken the form of a light green unicorn with a darker green mane and tail, and the mark on my flank was a musical staff.

"What do you think of my new form? I call this guise Aria Tone!"

It took a moment for Rainbow to recover from her awe. "Okay, um... I don't know whether to be more surprised by the fact that you're talking now or that you're a pony. How'd ya do that, anyway?"

I put a hoof around her. "You ever heard someone say that music can transform you? Well, in my case, that can be very literal. See, back in my home world, I'm pretty much the deity of music. And about three years ago, I discovered that singing songs from certain universes gave me the ability to change myself and those who hear my song to fit the universe from which the song originated."

She raised an eyebrow. "So, that means...?"

I sighed. "I sing an Equestrian song, I can become a creature from Equestria."

"Oh, okay. But how come I could understand you while you were singing?"

"Music is a universal language, and my native language. When I sing, everyone understands me!"

"Cool! Does that also mean you can understand other creatures singing in their own language?"

I nodded. "For sure!"

"Sweet!"

An awkward silence filled the air as Rainbow tried to think of something else to say.

Eventually she asked, "Uh, why did you transform into a pony anyway?"

I pointed out some of the ponies in the distance. "I don't think ponies would trust a strange creature half their size. They would be more comfortable with a pony."

"But you can turn invisible. Why don't you just do that?"

"Because I want ponies to pay attention to me."

"...You do?"

"Of course! As a singer and dancer, I love to bring smiles to large crowds!"

"Then why didn't you just say so in the first place? I can take you somewhere that ponies are always hanging near!" Rainbow poked her head up and peeked at the top part of the island. "Follow me, Meloetta... uh, I mean Aria Tone."

I followed her back to the surface of the island.

"Normally I would just fly right over, but you're new to Las Pegasus. And that's why we're walking there, so I can show you a bunch of other cool stuff on our way there!"

Finally, we made it to the fountain in the square. The one in Ponyville couldn't even compare!

I watched the fountain in awe as various ponies passed by. "So, the fountain that resides in the Las Pegasus square... This is a perfect location to perform in front of a mixed audience of all ages!"

Rainbow Dash nodded. "It's all yours."

I got onto the side of the fountain and looked out at the ponies around me.

I cleared my throat. "Ahem! May I have your attention please?"

The ponies paid their entire salary in attention.

I smiled. "Good! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Aria Tone, and I am here to perform some very special songs for you all."

I materialized a microphone and held it in front of my mouth with my magic.

"This one goes out to my dear friend Kirby. He is a Star Warrior who is gifted with a powerful voice and a pure heart. I would like to celebrate his countless victories over dark villains by singing a nostalgic melody. It's time to tune in to... The Greenest Greens!"

Author's Note

In case you're wondering, the song that Meloetta sang to transform into a pony was the first part of the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic opening theme. I was just too lazy to link to the song. :derpytongue2:

Chapter 19: A Rock–Solid Culture (Rocky)

"Here we are!" the pink pony Pinkie Pie happily exclaimed. "This is the Pie family rock farm!"

Rocks are quite selfless beings. We rocks repeatedly sacrifice our bodies and time in order to protect and aid others. But we often get a bad reputation for causing harm to others and the things they hold dear. We don't do that just for the sake of it. The reason we punish people in such a way is that they disrespect and mistreat us, even though we never did anything to them. They kick us, pick us up when we're trying to sleep, and break us apart with tools like jackhammers in order to build completely useless structures, so we do the same to them and their homes by dropping on them from above or joining together and creating rock slides.

That being said, we feel grateful when we meet people who treat us with respect and do not take our actions for granite. Therefore, I was very pleased to discover the wonderful place Pinkie Pie called her home... the rock farm.

In the distance, a navy blue Earth pony with a flat, light gray mane was carefully mining away at a natural stone wall, and a gray Earth pony with a dull teal mane was looking up at a massive, egg–shaped rock set up on a stone pedestal of some sort. The latter of the ponies was quietly whispering something, as if in prayer.

Many religions have a deity or idol of some sort that they give thanks and pray to. That rock... Could it be the Pie Family's deity? If so...

I walked towards the egg–shaped rock in awe.

"Hold it right there!" The navy blue Earth pony galloped to me, anger in her lime green eyes. "You there, yellow rock! I saw you heading towards Holder's Boulder, and I am not gonna let you vandalize it!"

"Limey, wait!" Pinkie popped up in between me and the navy blue pony. "You don't understand! This is my new friend Rocky, and I was just showing him around our farm." She nudged me ahead. "Rocky, I want you to meet my sister Limestone. Don't feel bad if she doesn't warm up to you, she just doesn't take very kindly to new creatures."

"..." I nodded to Limestone.

"Tch, whatever." Limestone narrowed her eyes. "But don't you dare even touch Holder's Boulder, or else!"

I tilted my head. "...?"

Pinkie said, "I don't think Rocky knows what Holder's Boulder is, Limey."

Limestone let out an exasperated groan. She pointed at the large rock. "There! See that? That's Holder's Boulder. It brings our family good luck. It's the pride of our family."

Ah, so Holder's Boulder wasn't a rock deity. It was merely a bringer of good luck that the Pie family took great pride in.

"...!" I nodded in understanding.

"Good." Limestone glared at me. "But I've got my eye on you, so if you even think about touching Holder's Boulder..."

"Thou hast proven thy point to the yellow rock, Limestone." An amber stallion with a gray mane and a light gray mare with a teal mane emerged from the nearby barn. The stallion continued, "Please forgive our eldest daughter, yellow rock."

"..." I nodded twice in forgiveness.

Pinkie explained, "This little guy is named Rocky. He doesn't talk very much. Probably not at all."

"A wise rock thou art," the stallion firmly said. "I am called Igneous Rock Pie, son of Feldspar Granite Pie. It doth be my pleasure to make your acquaintance."

The mare said, "And thou shalt know me as Cloudy Quartz. We hereby welcome thee to our humble abode."

I respectfully bowed to the two elder Earth ponies. "..."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Pinkie hurried over to the pony that had yet to be called by name and brought her to me. "This is my little sister, Marble!"

"Uh..." was the only response from Marble, as she was called, other than a nervous smile.

So my assumption was correct about Maud. She did live in a family which consisted of well-versed parents and four siblings, each sibling having a defining personality trait: shy, energetic, cool, and aggressive.

Igneous questioned, "Pinkamena Diane Pie, why hath thou brought this ‘Rocky’ to our residence?"

Here comes the tough part.

Pinkie Pie gave her parents the lowdown. "Well, Rocky is exploring Equestria with me so he can get to know its layout and be prepared for when Queen Chrysalis and her new friend unleash their assault in another attempt to rule over Equestria, and he doesn't know the layout of Equestria because he's actually from a different planet than ours and got warped here somehow, and that's because of a teleportation spell gone wrong, and the reason why he isn't running away or anything is because he's on a mission to defeat the new guy who's helping Queen Chrysalis rule over Equestria, which also means his mission is to defeat Chrysalis too!"

Limestone deadpanned. "That... is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. What other lies are you going to pull out of your—"

"Limestone Pie!" Igneous boomed. "Thou hast spoken enough."

Limestone folded her ears back in sorrow. "Yes, Pa..."

"Rocky." Igneous and his wife looked directly at me. "Pinkamena Diane Pie doth speak preposterous words, but thou shalt tell thy truth, without a mouth. We shalt read thy soul through thy windows to such."

I kept my eyes open as the elder ponies watched me intently. I am an honest rock who doesn't shut his windows to his soul when interrogated.

Cloudy Quartz widened her eyes. "...Pinkamena didst tell the truth. Thou art a hero who hast come from afar to strike down a threat to pony kind!"

Igneous took off his hat in sorrow. "We doth beg of thee, forgive us for wasting thy time, O Rocky." He stepped aside for me. "Thou art free to go about thy day. May the light of Celestia shine upon thee!"

I had no urgent matters to attend to, for the friendship heart within me was not calling me to Kirby. Therefore, I stayed with the Pie family and gave them my help with their labors at the rock farm until the time came that Kirby would summon me to his side.

Chapter 20: Manehattan Scouting In Progress (Roborygon)

In my Bright Fountain persona, I stepped off of the train alongside Rarity and Applejack. I affixed my optical lens towards the awe-inspiring city of Manehattan, which was quite reminiscent of Castelia City from the Unova region, as well as a certain northeastern state of the country in which one of my friends resides.

My vocal module emitted a sound that most living beings would likely compare to a sigh. "Ah, here we are! It is a thrilling experience to be able to explore one of the most famous cities known to Equestria!"

"Thrilling is putting it lightly," Rarity replied. "Manehattan has a multitude of brilliant facilities to visit and amenities to indulge in! It would be next to impossible to enjoy everything Manehattan has to offer!"

"You got that right, Rarity," Applejack said. "So, Roborygon, what d’you want to go check out first? We don't got all day, you know."

I formed a smile. "That is a good question, Applejack. A good question, indeed..."

Due to the vast amount of things that Manehattan has for ponies to go and do, depicting each and every thing that we would do would take much too long. Therefore, I will initiate a montage sequence that is far more appealing than reading several boring paragraphs of text. I do hope that you enjoy while listening to this casual piece of music.

We obtained a newspaper from the local newspaper stand so that I could read up on what was important enough for the local ponies to inform themselves about. And the arrival of Kirby and his helpers was such an unexpected surprise that it was already featured, even though they only came to Equestria yesterday.

We visited the toy store, where I used the floor piano to teach Rarity and AJ a couple of the songs often heard on Pop Star. Unfortunately for you readers, the quick–paced nature of a montage meant that the montage music overrides the music played on the floor piano, so there is no way to tell what songs were played.

We took center stage on the ice skating rink, where I decided to showboat by executing some tricks usually performed by expert figure skaters. This elicited jealousy from Rarity.

We went to the park, where Rarity and I sailed a swan boat. Some bystanders believed we were dating, but that was far from the truth. Rather, I was educating an enthusiastic Rarity on the wonders and importance of seeing the world from different points of view.

We ordered lunch at The Catering Cook, one of the more prestigious restaurants in Manehattan. I, of course, did not order anything due to not needing to eat or drink, seeing as I am a robot.

We entered the jewelry store, where Rarity tried to purchase some accessories for me, but I declined, for my hard–light module can manifest the very same accessories she could buy, without the price. I also shared my knowledge about various jewels with Rarity and AJ, talking about how diamonds form and why certain gems come in different colors.

Finally, we visited Saddle Row, a street lined with fashionable boutiques. I did not purchase anything; I only observed the clothes on display to learn about what fashions are the current trend.

Montage sequence complete. Resuming regular story format...

As we left Saddle Row, I received a phone call from Kirby. His poyo language was incomprehensible, but the message was clear.

"Rarity. Applejack. We're returning to Ponyville."

Author's Note

It's time... for the final showdown. :rainbowdetermined2:

Tune in next chapter for maximum poyo.

Chapter 21: Light Rises and Darkness Falls (Kirby)

"That's it, Kirby!" Button Mash exclaimed after I used Sword Dive to cleave a sandbag that totally didn't come from his closet where it hid alongside other video game objects he made himself. "Now it's time for you to learn how to do a custom combo I call the Single Slash String! You see, the initial slash and final slash in a natural combo always do the most damage, and the initial slash delivers the most hitstun, which means you can string together many..."

"Uh, Button Mash?" Fluttershy asked. "Why are you focusing only on his Sword Ability when he can gain many different Abilities from swallowing many different things?"

"I'm not focusing only on the Sword Ability," Button deadpanned. "I'm just teaching Kirby everything he needs to know to be a great Sword Ability user, because that's the ability he has now, and he usually doesn't change abilities during a boss battle unless the boss makes him lose the ability he has and can give him an Ability due to the aftermath or overall nature of its attacks. And because Chrysalis can transform into anything, there's no telling what other Ability he would be able to get, so why bother training with possible Abilities when you can train with a guaranteed one?"

Fluttershy hummed. "Well, I suppose you have a good point. But the Mane Six and I will be battling alongside Kirby, so he can copy from us. Wouldn't it be a good idea to train him in, I don't know..." She flared her wings. "Maybe a Feather or Wing Ability?"

Button widened his eyes, then face–hoofed. "Dear Nova, you're right! I can't believe I forgot about that!" He looked at me. "You heard her, Kirby. Ready to earn your wings and train with the Wing Ability?"

I nodded. "Poyo!"

But before I could pluck a feather from Fluttershy's wing, a little white bunny hopped over to us.

"Angel Bunny?" Fluttershy knelt down so that she was at eye level with the bunny. "What are you doing here? And what's that in your paws?"

With a disturbed frown, Angel Bunny eyed me closely. Then it gave me an old, worn-out piece of paper with some writing on it.

"Hmm..." I read the paper, which must have been a letter.

Kirby,

You and your friends have humiliated me for the last time. My new acquaintance and I challenge you, your friends, and the six famous ponies to a battle in Ponyville Square at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Expect no mercy from us!

Your greatest enemy,
Queen Chrysalis

So, the time has come...

"Poyo." I dismissed Angel with a nod.

My body glowed with a heart–shaped aura, and I pulled out a pink cell phone. I called Roborygon.

"Hello, Kirby. What is it?"

"Poyo. Poyo poyo poyo! Poyo, poyo."

"...Understood. We're on our way!"

I hung up. Even though I can't talk well, my serious tone of voice got the message across to Roborygon.

"Um, Kirby?" Fluttershy squeaked. "That letter... Could it mean...?"

"Uh huh." I hopped on her back. After adjusting my Splash Sword hat, I pointed my sword towards Ponyville Square. "Poyo, yah!"

"Oh dear..." she whimpered as she galloped off to our destination.

"Hey!" Button Mash ran after us. "Wait for me! I can help tell you and your friends what to do if you need it!"

An hour passed.

I stood firm in Ponyville Square, ready for battle alongside the Mane Six and my friends Gim, Meloetta, Rocky, and Roborygon. Seeing us prepared to fight, any and all bystanders hid in their homes, some peeking out their windows to watch the upcoming battle.

Two figures appeared at the edge of the horizon.

As they approached, we were able to see who they were. One of them was Hyness, and the other was a pony fully concealed by an old gray cloak.

They came to a stop several meters away from us.

We stared each other down for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally, the cloaked pony spoke. "Starlight Glimmer may not be here, but you will more than make up for her absence. After we are done with you, all that's left will be a group of beaten, bloodied creatures begging for the sweet release of death. Because right here, right now..."

Throwing away her cloak, the pony transformed into Queen Chrysalis.

"We will overcome the obstacle that is you, and then I will conquer Equestria as its malevolent overlord. And rest assured that we will make you..."

The Queen turned to Hyness in anticipation. As a response, he wailed at us...

"DISAPPEAR... FOREVER!!!"

And the battle began.

The ponies focused on Hyness as instructed by Roborygon prior to the arrival of Hyness and Chrysalis, and my team and I took on the evil transforming bug pony; being able to easily adapt, I was more fit to take on a fellow adapter, while the Mane Six was better suited for a less versatile villain.

Chrysalis transformed into a creature that looked like a lion with a scorpion tail and dragon wings, and lunged at me. I jumped right over her and clung to her back, which I slashed repeatedly with my sword. I had to jump off to avoid her scorpion stinger, but in doing so, I got hit by a stray ball of purple energy that Hyness had tried to blast Pinkie Pie with.

While Gim punished Hyness by throwing Rocky at him, Twilight saved me from being pounced on by Chrysalis by pulling me away with her magic. After a quick poyo in thanks, I raised my sword to the sky, where it became cloaked in light. Then, as Chrysalis tried to pounce on me again, I swung my sword at her, sending a wave of energy and water that stunned her for a while, which left her open to a punch in the face by both Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

The two got ready to punch her again, but she transformed into what looked like a green crocodile with a hide of rocks, so they held their hooves in pain after hitting such a hard surface. She snapped at them, only for Gim to throw his blazing yo-yo into her open mouth, roasting her maw.

"That's a spicy meatball!" Roborygon quipped, leaving himself open to an ice spell from Hyness, which successfully encased him in ice.

Chrysalis slammed him with her tail, freeing him from the ice. He fell apart, but he quickly pulled himself back together. "Oh," the queen said, a blank expression on her face. "Your body can take more than I had anticipated."

"Rule number one of fighting someone with the ability to change the shape of their body..." Roborygon changed into the shape of a capital T. "Don't bother trying to break them."

Button Mash could be heard exclaiming in joy, "Ohh! He just T-posed! Someone grab some Neosporin, because Chrysalis just got burned!"

"Silence, colt!" Chrysalis briefly returned to her normal form to fire a laser at the window of Button Mash's home (only for Rarity to deflect the beam away with a reflective gem), then turned back into a rocky crocodile.

Twilight switched her focus to Chrysalis, telling me that physical attacks aren't as effective on "cragadiles," as she called the rocky crocodile form Chrysalis had taken on, so we should use elemental attacks and other indirect attacks like lasers instead. Our strength and speed gave us a huge advantage, because we were able to get in lots of good hits while swiftly avoiding the slow attacks of Chrysalis in her cragadile form.

But without warning, Queen Chrysalis turned into what looked like a cross between a panda bear and a bumble bee. It looked a lot scarier than you'd think. She lunged at me with her two pairs of front claws, and I guarded with my sword. However, the combined might of her claws knocked away my sword, making me lose my Splash Sword Ability.

"Ooh, I wanna try!" Pinkie Pie grabbed the sword with her tail and threw it at Hyness, who was casting a lightning spell. The steel part of the sword caused the lightning to be directed towards Hyness, zapping him with his own spell.

Before I could get the sword back, he destroyed it with sharp spears made of magic.

"Poyo..." I pouted before dodging left to avoid a stinger jab from Chrysalis.

"Here, take this!" Fluttershy plucked a feather from her wing and tossed it my way.

I swallowed it and gained the Wing Ability, a colorful headdress of feathers replacing my Splash Sword hat. Taking advantage of the enhanced flight it offered, I flew up to Chrysalis and rammed into her chest with Condor Head. Still ramming her, I sailed towards the ground, pinning her between it and my head. I flew off of her just in time for her to get blasted by a big ball of energy that Rarity had deflected from Hyness.

But before I could close in for another round of attacks, I noticed that Rainbow Dash and Gim were missing. Twilight noticed as well. "Rainbow Dash? Gim? Where'd you go?" she asked, making Chrysalis wary as well.

"Up here, dudes!" We looked skywards, and we saw Rainbow Dash holding Gim in her front hooves. She tossed Gim straight downwards while exclaiming, "Look out below!"

"Juh?" Hyness stopped attacking to look up as well, and he was hit square in the head by Gim, who was spinning around and cloaked in fire as he fell.

The fire also burned away his hood.

"Juh?!" Hyness said, covering his face with his sleeves.

"Oh boy," Twilight muttered.

"Juh..."

"Time for an overly dramatic face reveal," Applejack sighed.

"JUH!"

"And rightfully so?" Rarity asked.

Hyness took his sleeves away from his face. It was revealed to be blue, with a big nose, crazy eyes, and yellow striped horns like Magolor has.

"JUHYAMBAVITRIGOKOPOKOJAAAH!!"

Chrysalis, back in her normal form, stared in shock and confusion at Hyness, much like the rest of us. "Yes. Rightfully so."

After making a bunch of weird noises and flailing his arms about, Hyness summoned all three mage sisters: the icy blue Francisca, the blazing red Flamberge, and the electric yellow Zan Partizanne.

"Lord Hyness?!" Zan exclaimed. "Thank goodness you're still...? What are you... ohh..."

Before Zan could figure out what's going on, Hyness did the unpredictable: He absorbed the sisters' life force, leaving them as a group of limp husks for him to use to his heart's content!

Chrysalis gasped. "Never before have I seen someone who boasts so little mercy and so much malice..." She donned an evil grin. "Oh, wait, I have seen someone like that: myself! Ha ha ha!"

"Twice the malice, double the fall," Twilight shot back. "Come on, everyone! Let's show those freaks what we're really—Whoa!"

She got cut off when Hyness threw Francisca at her, prompting her to make a shield to protect herself. Then he used Flamberge as a club in an attempt to bash Fluttershy, but Pinkie stopped him with a party cannon blast.

"Oho, are we already at the point where we break out the dirty tricks?" Chrysalis transformed into a giant blue star–nosed mole creature with long front legs and sharp claws. "Good! Now let's see if you can get past the hide of a maulwurf!"

"Kirby!" Twilight warned. "The maulwurf has an incredibly thick hide! You'll need a way to pierce it if you want to beat her!"

"Hmph!" My Wing Ability is best used for ramming things and cutting stuff with feathers, but that wouldn't be very useful against such a huge beast with a thick hide. So I ditched the Ability, which bounced away as a star, and dodged the Queen's attacks as I tried to figure out how to take her down...

Oh, right.

I jumped onto her paw as she tried to slash me, then I opened my mouth and stuck to her paw like a plunger, inhaling whatever hairs on it were loose.

She shook me off after a few seconds, but the deed was done. I gained a blue animal costume that looked a lot like a maulwurf. And because maulwurfs are only found in Equestria, that means... I just gained my first Equestria–exclusive Ability!

Chrysalis let out an angry groan. "I can't believe this! You figured out that you needed to fight fire with fire?"

I gave her a smile that said “It's what I do,” and then I lunged at her.

She swept her claws across the ground, but I jumped over them and made lasting impressions on her belly with my newly copied powers.

We exchanged blows for a while, until...

"AIE–E–E–E–E–E!" Hyness zapped me by bonking the back of my head with Zan Partizanne, which also zapped Chrysalis and turned her back into her normal form because I was clinging to her at the moment. "Wah!" Then he slammed me away with Zan, knocking off my Ability.

"Kirby!" Fluttershy galloped over to me. "Are you okay?!"

"Oh..." I rubbed my head, which ached from the sudden bonk and zap, before giving the yellow Pegasus a nod to confirm that I was okay. "Poyo!"

Suddenly, green lasers rained on us, forcing us to run to cover. The two of us fled behind the fountain, followed by Gim, Rocky, AJ, and Rarity. Everyone else stayed in the fray, either protecting themselves with a shield or dodging the beams. I chanced a glance out from behind our cover to see where the lasers came from, and I saw Hyness spinning the tail of a very surprised Chrysalis, causing her horn to fire lasers at wherever it was pointed.

"Hey, that's my thing!" Pinkie complained as she put on an umbrella hat which somehow protected her head from laser beams.

Gim gripped his hat tightly. "We can't just sit and hide, but it ain't like we can just go Leroy Jenkins and run out there like a madman while they're unleashing a barrage of laser beams on us either! How're we gonna stop them now?"

AJ took a look at Rocky. "Hmm... Say, I think I got me an idea! Are you good at slamming into stuff real fast, Rocky?"

Rocky nodded. "...!" He looked up at Hyness and Chrysalis, and uncertainty was in his eyes. "...?"

"Yeah, that's the only problem," Gim said. "Rocky's super heavy, so he can't run fast or jump high." He held up a finger. "But! We can give him a radical speed boost if we hit him up with something watery or icy, or if a broom sweeps him."

"A broom?" Rarity smiled. "I always have a spare one in my closet. Can someone go to Carousel Boutique and get it for us?"

"Mele!" Meloetta stopped shielding herself with Light Screen and danced off to find the boutique.

Gim turned to Rarity. "But can't you just warp the broom to us?"

Rarity shook her head. "Normally, yes. But summoning is a more advanced spell that requires concentration, and being fired at by an insane wizard and a transforming insectoid monarch is much too distracting."

"Good point."

Meloetta came back surprisingly quickly, the broom in her hands. "Melemele! Meloetta!"

"...!" Seeing the broom, Rocky jumped up to the top of the fountain statue and faced Hyness and Chrysalis. He looked back at Rarity and nodded. "...!"

"You would like me to do the honors? Why, certainly!" Rarity levitated the broom up to Rocky, and held it like a golf club. "Let us have a clean sweep!" The broom pulled back, and then struck Rocky.

Upon contact with the broom, Rocky changed shape into a curling stone with a yellow handle, and he sailed right towards the maniacal duo.

WHAM! A direct hit on Hyness!

He fell to the ground, and Chrysalis slowly lowered herself to the ground with her insect wings. The Queen leered at Hyness. "Next time, give me a warning before you manhandle me."

Hyness screamed random stuff before grabbing her again.

"Close enough."

Hyness held Chrysalis above his head before floating back up. This time, he went much higher than usual. Much, much higher.

We heard Chrysalis laugh giddily. "Ooh, I like where this is going!"

Hyness threw Chrysalis.

And Chrysalis transformed into an enormous blue bear whose body looked like a constellation.

"Rocky, NO!" Gim ran after Rocky in a panic, trying to help him get out of the way.

"Poyo?!" I hurried after Gim, trying to stop him from risking his life.

BOOOOM!

But it was too late. Chrysalis had turned Rocky into rubble and Gim into scrap metal because of her constellation bear form's huge caboose landing on them.

She got up and walked away from the aftermath before returning to her usual form to look at what she had done. Rocky was now a group of smaller yellow rocks without a helmet, and Gim was reduced to a bunch of spare parts and a flattened baseball cap, glove, and pair of shoes.

"Poyo..." Overcome with disbelief and sadness, I slowly walked up to my fallen helpers. I picked up the remains of Gim and watched him undergo the process of shutting down.

His voice module still had some words to say to me before expiring: "S–stop m–m–mourning, bro... I'm j–just a mass-produced r–r–robot... But the l–locals of this p–place... They're unique... Each one–of–a–kind... And l–l–living... W–worry about them instead... I'm s–satisfied with what I did with my time w–while I was powered on... Just p–p–promise me... You'll give the Queen what she d–d–d..."

Gim was right. I needed to focus on saving the living, special ponies that made up the majority of the population of Equestria.

"Poyo." I put Gim down and did the motions of a Pinkie Promise. I promised that I would give Queen Chrysalis what for. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye...

And then I realized something. I closed my eyes as I thought about the possible consequences of this battle.

I wasn't battling Queen Chrysalis and Hyness just for myself, or for Gim, or the Mane Six, or even for the entirety of Equestria.

People all around the universe love the ponies of Equestria. If I failed to defeat Chrysalis, she would conquer Equestria, and possibly even the entire planet of Equus.

And I would be letting down people across the universe, no, the Multiverse.

I clenched my fists.

That was the real reason why I needed to fight. To help people EVERYWHERE!

As I had my revelation, Queen Chrysalis was going on a monologue. "Ah, it appears I have made a point. Now you know just what you're up against. You saw what I did to that pathetic little robot and rock, so imagine what I could do to the ponies that inhabit Equestria!" She walked up behind me and raised a hoof. "Now that I have struck fear into your heart, you will be easy pickings!"

My eyes still closed, I spun around and grabbed her hoof with my left hand as she brought it down on me, to her shock. "No..."

Then I punched her gut with my right hand, knocking her back several meters.

I felt a painful tearing feeling in my back, but I didn't think about it. I was too focused on Chrysalis. Opening my eyes, I gave her a stare so intense that it could pierce Coily Rattler's body segments.

"YOU will!"

Chrysalis raised her eyebrows, then she frowned. "Ugh, everyone has a special transformation nowadays! Whatever, I'm still going to make you pay!"

"Huh?" Transformation? I looked down at my arms and feet, but I didn't see any difference. If only I could get a good look at myself from another...

Suddenly, a reflective shard like from my Mirror Ability appeared in front of my face, almost as if I willed it to appear. Wait... Was that because of my apparent transformation?

I looked at my reflection in the mirror shard. My eyes were glowing white, and... I had sprouted wings like from my Angel Ability! No wonder I felt that back pain!

"Poyo, poyo poyo!" I exclaimed in awe.

Rainbow Dash grinned at me. "You bet it is! Super transformations are awesome, and gaining wings is super awesome, so a super transformation with wings is super duper awesome! But... I didn't know you could get an Angel Ability."

Whoa, hold up... Did Rainbow Dash just understand my poyo? Just to make sure, I asked the Mane Six, "Poyo poyo?", which roughly translated to, "Did you just understand my poyo language?"

Pinkie nodded. "Yeah, I heard the poyo, but at the same time..."

Rarity continued, "It's as if we just heard what you were trying to say directly in our minds and hearts."

Twilight added, "It reminded me of telepathy, except we only heard it..."

Fluttershy said, "When you said poyo."

AJ finished, "So what your mouth said to our ears, your heart and mind translated for our own hearts and minds!"

"Ah, poyo!" I smiled in understanding. Then my expression turned serious. "All of you guys keep Hyness busy. I've got a score to settle with Queen Chrysalis..."

Since my new transformation created that mirror shard that let me check myself out, I figured it could also let me use powers I usually only got from gaining Abilities, so I tested it out.

And the test confirmed my guess.

Several sharp Needles materialized in the air around me, and I sent them towards Chrysalis.

She performed an acrobatic flip, and the Needles harmlessly flew right through her holes. "Well, what do you know," she casually said. "There is an advantage to being filled with holes. Perhaps I should thank Celestia for blasting all these holes in me the next time I see her."

Then she fired a big laser, and I summoned a Magic hat that the laser entered. I showed everyone the inside of the hat while wearing a fake curious expression. "Look, nothing in my hat! It's empty! Where did the laser go?"

I opened my mouth wide, and the laser exited my mouth, heading right back at Chrysalis, who jumped over it and lunged at me. I intercepted her with a Parasol and used it to balance her above my head. Twirling her for a few seconds, I flung her off the Parasol before firing a blast of energy from my hands.

She protected herself with a shield before shoving me away with her magic, but I pulled her along with me by thrusting a very long Staff through the holes in her body and sticking her to it with Spider webs. When I came to a standstill, I used my Staff to slam her on the ground over and over again.

"I take back what I said about thanking Celestia..." Chrysalis groaned. "These holes are a curse... Ugh..."

She tried to get up, but failed.

After a short pause, she held a front leg in front of her muzzle. "How revolting... Yet also somewhat amusing, seeing as an irritatingly innocent pink puffball of all things has managed to harm me in such a way that breaks my flesh..."

I furrowed my eyebrows as I figured out what she meant.

"Oh..." Considering the way she was covering her snout, I motioned for Rarity to get a tissue, which she did. I took it and offered it to Chrysalis. "Sorry about that, Rainbow didn't mean for us to literally beat the stuff out of you..."

"Hm? Ah, you believe you invoked a literal variation of that combat metaphor; in that case, you are incorrect. However, I will admit you made a close guess. Allow me to gladly take that off your... Hooves? Hands? ...Whatever they are." Chrysalis uncovered her muzzle to accept the tissue, revealing some icky teal stuff oozing from her nose, which grossed out and disturbed us, especially Rarity. The Queen wore an evil smirk. "Congratulations, Kirby... on your first bloodshed."

My eyes widened as I processed what she said. That wasn't snot coming from her nostrils. I had given her a nosebleed, not a runny nose. And the mention of blood reminded me of one of my least favorite enemies...

After she finished wiping her muzzle, I grabbed Queen Chrysalis by the throat. "Listen here, you little poyo. This is by no means my first bloodshed. You want to know my first experience with blood? I fought and defeated the giant eye called Zero, the fiend who left my Love-Love Stick dyed red with his gruesome aftermath. The blood-spewing eyeball came back for revenge under the guise of an angel, but I slew him once more with the crystal gun. Both times, I was traumatized by the red liquid that was his blood, but I still got the job done. I hate him, both for introducing me to blood and for corrupting all of my friends with the help of his minions, the Dark Matters. And now..."

I burned away the Spider webbing that bound her to the Staff, then dismissed the Staff and wrapped her up with a Whip that was electrified with Plasma.

"...I hate YOU, for reminding me of Zero by cruelly speaking of blood, and intentionally using the word in a way that makes me look like a monster! You are a manipulative, lying poyo who deserves a fate worse than death!"

I yanked on the Zap Whip, causing Chrysalis to spin around like a top.

"Mark my words, Queen Chrysalis: The next time I'm here in Equestria and I see your ugly, deceptive mug causing agony and terror among this lovely country's peaceful citizens..."

I pounded her with a Hammer, abruptly stopping her spinning. I glared her dead in the eye.

"I won't let you off so easily. Now GET THE POYO OUT OF PONYVILLE, AND GO BACK TO THE DARK GLOOMY WOODS WHERE YOU BELONG!"

Coughing up more teal changeling blood, the evil queen laughed, despite the bad shape she was in. "You really think... begging for mercy... will help you? Don't you know... you are an obstacle in my path? And when an obstacle insists on staying in my way..."

She bared her fangs and...

CLANG!

...broke them on my Metal head. "Ouch..."

I held a Bomb infused with wind under Chrysalis. "Oh, this Star Warrior wasn't begging for mercy..."

The Bluster Bomb exploded, sending her straight up into the sky.

"I was offering mercy. But you turned my offer down and tried to attack me again, which means..."

While she was in the air, I reached her with a Hi Jump. Her eyes widened in fear as I started glowing brightly and the world shook around me.

"You get to see the full power of my strongest, most destructive regular Ability..."

My friends, and everyone who was watching from their windows, hid behind something so they didn't get caught in the attack.

And rightfully so.

"CRASH... SUPERNOVA!!!"

I created an enormous explosion, and it sent Chrysalis far, far away. Strangely, it didn't destroy anything in the vicinity, but that's the nature of the Crash Ability. Instead, only Chrysalis and Hyness were launched, the Mane Six merely feeling a strong gust that resulted from the blast; as my friends, they weren't harmed by my Crash Ability. But as a bad guy, Hyness was close enough that he was shoved to the ground by the force of the explosion.

When I landed, Hyness looked at me and wailed. "Juh?! JAAAAAHHH!!"

He used the mage sisters and himself to form a wheel, and the vile "Friend" Circle (more like Fiend Circle) rolled my way.

I summoned a wooden Hammer with colorful highlights. It grew to double its original size, becoming more festive, then triple its size, turning golden. Then, sidestepping out of the way, I held it at my side, and...

BAM!

I clubbed the four clear out of the atmosphere.

I looked back at the Mane Six, who were coming out of hiding from behind the fountain and staring at me in awe.

"Well..." Twilight glanced around. "Now that things have calmed down a little bit... I'd like to ask you something, Kirby..."

"By all means."

Twilight took a deep breath...

And then all of the Mane Six started bombarding me with questions.

"How did that blast not hurt us?" "How'd you do that cool transformation?" "Could you copy all those Abilities you used during your transformation?" "Can I see another magic hat trick?" "Why are we able to understand you during that transformation you have underwent?" "How're you so dang tough?"

After listening to over a dozen questions they threw at me, I looked down at the ground in thought. The “How” questions they asked really got me thinking. "I... don't know. There's a lot of things about me that I don't understand. I just chose to accept the things that make me, well... me."

I looked up at the sky as I put a hand under my chin.

"But... I once heard Magolor make a guess about me. He had a theory that I was created... from my home universe's God!"

The ponies gasped, "WHAT?!"

I nodded. "I know, sounds crazy. But he said that the God absorbed positive and negative energy during his existence. While worshipped by the Ancients, he absorbed a lot of positive energy. But a war broke out between the two tribes of the Ancients: the Magic clan and the Technology clan. This caused the God to absorb a lot of negativity, and sometime after the Technology clan banished the Magic clan and the God, who was then called the Dark God after all the negativity he absorbed, to the edge of the universe, all the positivity must have gotten released from the Dark God's body..."

"And all that positivity became you?" Twilight concluded.

"Uh huh... If my friend Magolor is right."

Pinkie added, "Wait a minute... If you're made from positivity that the Dark God absorbed... Does that mean that he's your daddy?"

"...!" I stopped to contemplate the genius that is Pinkie Pie. "Oh my poyo, you're right... I'm the son of a God... And that makes me a demigod... of positivity! That explains a lot. Including why I had this transformation when I realized that I had to fight for the sake of everybody... I must have tapped into my inner positivity demigod to maintain peace for everyone!"

I shook myself out of my stupor.

"No, wait. That isn't important right now. Hyness mentioned trying to summon a Dark Lord. Now that you've got me thinking about it, that must be the same God that Magolor was talking about. That also means my dad's the one who's been corrupted by negativity and is trapped in the Jamba Heart. If Hyness releases him, he'll wreak havoc on the universe! I can't let that happen, but I don't want my dad to stay trapped in there or to die either. I love him... And that's what I gotta do! If negativity makes him bad, then positivity will make him good! But the Dark God won't want to accept my love, though, so I may need to beat it into him..."

"Well, whatever the case, just know this..." Rainbow Dash grinned. "You've got us cheering you on, so you better not lose!"

"I've got all my friends to help me. Between our teamwork and my status as a demigod of positivity, no way we're gonna lose!"

"Okay, bye, have a great time!" Roborygon flew off into the cosmos in the form of a mini–jet.

"Melemele!" Meloetta flew off as well, waving the ponies goodbye.

I took out my cell phone to summon my ride, but I remembered something. "Actually... There's something I need to tell you guys."

The ponies leaned forward in curiosity. "What is it?" they asked.

I looked at them with a warm smile. "To be honest... I actually knew about you guys all this time, even before I was sent here."

"You... did?" Fluttershy asked.

"That's right. In the universe that a friend of mine comes from, your adventures and sometimes mishaps have been recorded in books and films."

"Is that so?" Rarity folded her ears back in fear. "Please tell me the writers got my good side."

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "Good and bad alike. That's why I said mishaps."

Applejack raised an eyebrow. "So you know about, say... the Sisterhooves Social incident?"

I nodded. "Uh huh."

"But also good stuff and adventures like when we visited Starlight's village?"

"Uh huh! And I gotta say, after reading and watching your various antics and adventures..." Suddenly, I jumped forward and hugged Pinkie Pie. "I'm a huge fan of you guys! Especially you, Pinkie Pie. We're practically twins!"

"Aw, I like you too, Kirby!" Pinkie hugged me back. "But why didn't you run up and hug me when you first saw us?"

"Believe me, I really wanted to. But I hid my excitement and pretended to not know about you guys because it'd be weird to just run up and hug someone who barely knows you, right?"

Fluttershy nervously smiled. "Oh, you're right. I probably shouldn't have done that to you when you smiled and said hi to us. Sorry if that was too weird for you."

"Nah, it's okay. Bring it in, everyone!"

So we all shared a big group hug.

After letting go, I looked back where the broken Gim and Rocky were, but they were missing. "Huh? Where'd they go?"

"Oh, sorry about that," Twilight said. "While you had your eyes closed in revelation, we took the remains of Gim to Doctor Whooves so he and I could try and repair him."

"Thank you, everyone! And Rocky?"

Rainbow shrugged. "Uh, we don't know, actually. One moment his body is there, but when we returned from taking Gim to the Doctor, it was gone!"

"That's weird... Eh, whatever." I pressed a button on my phone, and a big yellow star flew to me from the sky. "This is my ride, the Warp Star! Since Roborygon was summoned by a Dream Rod—I could tell because I felt friend energy within him—and came here straight from the Dream Palace, that means this planet is in the same universe as my home, so I'm just taking the Warp Star back to see what I can do about the old man."

"Really? That's great!" Twilight rested her hoof on me. "Kirby, we're really going to miss you. So when you're done taking care of things with the Dark God, could you please do us a favor and come back here one more time?"

I gave her a determined smile. "Consider it done." I did the motions of a Pinkie Promise before hopping on my Warp Star and flying off.

Author's Note

If, before you read this Author's Note, you happened to read the chapter in a way that the Kirby's Triumphant Return part of Marx's theme synced up with the Crash explosion... You are awesome.

Even if you didn't, you're still awesome. Never forget that. :rainbowdetermined2:

Epilogue: The Adventure Is Far From Over...

A familiar dark–colored space station came into view as I sailed stop my trusty Warp Star. I flew towards the platform at the very end of the station, which was home to the altar where we first met Hyness.

As I approached, I saw that there was a small crowd that had gathered. They were just getting up from watching what looked like a television set, and they looked my way.

I quickly recognized them as my friends from across the Multiverse, most of whom were originally introduced to each other thanks to the Hands inviting them to the Smash Bros tournament that takes place every few years.

Out of all of the group that had been watching TV, the people from the universes united by Master Hand were as follows: Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Paper Mario from the Mushroom Kingdom; Meta Knight, Bandana Waddle Dee, and King Dedede from my home planet Pop Star; Sonic and Tails from Mobius; and Keldeo, Meloetta, and my Lucario friend from the Pokemon world.

The last few people were from a universe that hasn't had a person called to join Smash. They were Pummel Fist and Heart Fist, a son and mother respectively who gained the ability to transform into Pokemon after a special potion was used on them (they chose to be Machop most of the time, like they were now); Roborygon; Helix, a super smart scientist who also used a potion to become a Pokemon (he was the Shiny form of Decidueye, basically an archer owl; most have green hoods and light brown wings, but Shiny ones like Helix have dark teal hoods and black wings)...

...And Discord, who was using a camcorder to record me flying their way.

After I landed, I asked, "Discord? What're you doing here?"

Camcorder still rolling, Discord replied, "Twilight wanted me to show her and her friends how you were doing in real time, so I'm currently transmitting this footage to her live!"

"Sounds great. I'm sure they're going to want to see how things go down with us, Hyness, and the Dark God!" I turned to my friends to see what they had to say.

Lucario's eyes glowed yellow as he looked at me, but he quickly turned away and covered his eyes. "Ngh! My apologies, Kirby... Your aura... The intensity of it has increased very drastically. When I read your aura just now, it was like looking at the sun, except it was blue and not yellow. The unleashing of your inner positivity demigod must have caused your aura to become blindingly radiant!"

"Sorry... My aura should die down when I return to my normal form, but I can't do that just yet because I still need to put an end to this for good."

Helix walked up to me. "Kirby, I believe this new power you have unlocked will allow you to become our most valuable teammate. Now that you've discovered your true potential, you're a massively overpowered Jack-of-all-trades who will stop at nothing to protect the Multiverse!"

I smiled, but I shook my head. "Thank you, but we all know that I will stop for some things. Curse you, food..."

Keldeo nervously smiled. "You know, if I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm actually really jealous that you got to go to Equestria. The ponies over there are so fun and colorful, in both senses of the term! Sometimes I just wish I could escape from the plain old Pokemon world and hop into the world that's home to such an amazing variety of ponies..."

"That shouldn't be anything I can't handle. How about I take you there after this gets over with?"

"That'd be great, thanks."

Meta Knight began to approach me, but King Dedede knocked him away and ran up to me. "Speaking of that Equestria place, Kirby, I really need ya to do something for me once we're done with all this! If you go back there, please, please tell that nightmare horsey not to beat me up again! I'll do anything to make it up for her, anything!"

I let out a soft chuckle. "Guess what, she actually wants to apologize to you. She's the royal sister more prone to battle, so that's why she chose to kick your butt, and she's sorry for doing that to you."

"Really? Whew!" Dedede wiped some sweat off his forehead. "Thank goodness, I didn't wanna get my butt handed to me again! Now that I don't have to worry about that, I can focus on the guy who started all this mess..."

Meta Knight got up and shook his head. "But the NESP isn't here anymore. He left for the Ability Planet southeast of here because he became bored of waiting for the battle."

"I ain't talking about that guy, MK..." King Dedede raced over to Hyness, who was still unconscious. "I'm talking about YOU! You're the freak who made that dark little heart possess me and some of Kirby's buddies, and you also made NESP teleport you and the Star Allies to that pony place where Kirby met the night horsey who whooped me real good! And now..." He held his hammer back above his head like a golf club. "...I'm gonna make you pay for causing all that!"

"No, wait!" Tails warned. "Hitting Hyness in that direction will likely send him—"

POW!

"...towards the Jamba Heart."

As Tails predicted, Hyness was launched straight into the Jamba Heart. But what happened next was very surprising: when he made contact, a dark cloud came from him and merged the two together.

"Incredible..." Lucario exclaimed. "The vast amount of darkness and negativity within Hyness is fusing with that of the Dark God..."

The area around the dark cloud shook and distorted, before collapsing into itself and forming a vortex that consumed Hyness and the Jamba Heart.

"And as a result, it opened an unstable rift between the Dream Universe and the other dimension where Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight, and Bandana Dee battled Magolor!" Helix gasped.

Everyone glared at King Dedede, before Discord made two slices of bread stick themselves to the sides of the king's head. "WHAT ARE YOU?!" Discord yelled.

"...An idiot sandwich," Dedede sighed. He got a bunch of surprised looks. "What? I love watching cooking shows."

We returned to watching the vortex for several seconds.

Then, with a deadpan expression on my face, I said, "Let me guess... We're gonna have to leap into that portal and go on another, tougher adventure where we will have to use all of our abilities to make it through? Probably gotta face far tougher versions of foes we've already encountered before?"

Pummel Fist nodded. "Seems like it."

"And at the end, we'll have to battle a super tough boss before we can take on the Dark God himself?"

Sonic nodded. "Nothing we can't handle together."

"Will there be a familiar face beforehand that we will have to battle either as a test or because they're corrupted?"

An orange butterfly fluttered our way. One that I remember seeing every once in a while throughout my life on Pop Star. Then, a pink portal opened above it. From the portal came a magenta crystal that contained a certain pink swordsman with a white mask and wings, and holding a lance in its hand.

The butterfly landed on the crystal... and absorbed it and the knight within.

"T–That's no ordinary butterfly, is it...?" Bandana Dee asked.

The butterfly was covered by a bright orange light, and when the light went away, the butterfly was replaced by a black and red swordsman with butterfly wings and a flashy red sword.

A deep voice echoed in our minds, as if the swordsman was speaking through telepathy: This universe is in grave danger of being reduced to nothing by the hands of the Dark God... Face me and this vessel I have possessed in combat, all you who intend to challenge the destroyer of worlds. I, Morpho Knight, will be the final test before you proceed to challenge him... The result of our battle will not only determine the likelihood of your victory over Void Termina, or whether you are ready, but will also increase your chances of succeeding by giving you the experience you need... He pointed his sword at me. Although you may have awoken your inner god, Son of the Void, that alone will not assure victory. Only by unleashing your full might alongside your allies will you be able to quell the wrath of the Dark God. Will you accept my challenge... or sit back and allow the Dark God to lay waste to this universe?

Like we're gonna let the latter happen.

I used my new powers to connect the minds and hearts of my friends. We could know each other's thoughts and anticipate each other's actions.

A Sword appeared in my hand, and my friends readied their own weapons for battle.

"...Bring it on. En garde!"

Author's Note

Yep, in my stories before this one, Super Smash Brothers is canon. My theory for it is that whenever someone from a certain universe is invited to participate in the Smash Bros tournament, their home universe gets connected to this place called the Smash Bros Sanctuary, where fighters can relax or prepare for their next battle. So basically, the Smash Bros Sanctuary is a sort of hub that's connected to all of the universes that have at least one resident in Smash. Anyone from the connected universes may visit the sanctuary and other connected universes, even if they're not fighters.

Additionally, fighters are given special permission by Master Hand to freely visit other universes (unless they were already able to, such as fighters who can create portals through space and time), even ones not connected to the Smash Bros Sanctuary. That's why, for instance, Donkey Kong is a secret contender in Punch-Out Wii.

And yes, the gang is about to begin the Heroes In Another Dimension adventure. I won't cover it in my possible but very unlikely remaster of Guest Star Kelduo: Justice From Afar, though; it'd be much too long, and won't have anything to do with MLP.

Now that I've published this remaster of Kirby Star Allies: Friend Hearts Are Magic, I need time to replenish my creativity. Writing this took a lot of time, work, and inspiration. That's why I'm going to take a break from working on my stories, including Helix and Hooves: Trainers of the Future, hence why it's on hiatus. My break will end when the new Kirby game comes out, because I'm definitely going to make a story about it.

So get yourselves hyped up for A New Generation in the Forgotten Land, starring Kirby and a pony eager to ignite Kirby's passion for G5! :pinkiehappy:

Prologue: A Mistake (Kirby)

"Ngh, that's it! You've forced my hand!" the yellow-robed mage floating in front of us yelled after recoiling from my counterattack. "I, Zan Partizanne, will show you the full wrath of the strongest Mage-Sister!" With a huge, booming sound, she summoned a trio of electrified drums connected by a ring.

I had my water-infused sword ready for action, but I lowered it after I saw her thunder drums. "Poyo?" Them again? I already saw her use them in our fight back in the Jambastion, so what use is there in using the thunder drums again?

"Expecting the same attack as before? You should know better!" Zan raised her right hand, and her spear appeared in it. She pulled back her spear in a way similar to the Ability I get when I swallow one of those little mice in purple archer outfits. "Your punishment for interfering with our mission to rebuild the Jamba Heart is a high-voltage shish kebab!"

"Not this time!" my green robot partner Gim said as he pointed a gloved finger at her. "Yo, Kirby! Nail her with a Splash Twister Slash!"

"Poyo!" I scurried under Zan while Gim dodged to his right and my blue-robed psychic pal NESP teleported out of the way. I held my Splash Sword out and began charging, but I felt like I was forgetting something...

I gasped in realization.

I turned around and saw my yellow rock friend trying to get out of the way. "Rocky!"

"...!" He did his best to dodge, but being as heavy and slow as Rockies are, Zan's spear struck him right in the forehead. "..." Rocky doesn't really talk all that much, but I was sure he felt that.

As revenge for Rocky, I put a lot more oomph than usual into my attack. "Yaaaaaah!" I jumped up and spun around with my sword out, sending water all around me. The water got on Zan's drum set, and it caused them to short out and explode, launching Zan headfirst into the ground.

"Bingo!" Gim pumped his fist. "She's weakened and open to attacks! I think it's about time for us to set up a super-cool combo attack!"

"That's what I'm talking about!" NESP said with a grin. "You got something in mind, Gim? As the brains of the outfit, we can always count on you to come up with plans!"

“Hey, put a little faith in yourself! You can come up with plans too if you put your heart and mind to it! But yeah, I do have something in mind.” As Zan tried to get up, Gim threw his fiery yo-yo and wrapped it around her, singeing her waist area. “Rocky, think you’re up for some more action?”

After dislodging the spear from his forehead, Rocky nodded. “...!”

“Sweet! NESP, get ready to use Geokinesis!”

“You got it, Gim!” NESP caused purplish-blue psychic energy to form around his hands, and the same energy covered Rocky from the tip of his helmet to the bottom of his feet. “Just say the word whenever you're ready!”

“Alright. On my mark!” With one good yank, Gim slammed Zan (still trapped in his yo-yo’s string) onto Rocky’s helmet. Oof! No matter what species you are, unless your head is harder than stone, you would not want to be in Zan Partizanne's position! “Do it! Now!”

“Looks like it's time for some double duty!” Using his psychic powers, NESP caused Rocky to triple in size, and Rocky transformed into a golden statue of a dog incubating some eggs. NESP used telekinesis to lift Rocky up and slam him down on Zan Partizanne. When Rocky got off of Zan, she was clearly not going to get up anytime soon. “Victory is ours!”

Gim wound up his yo-yo, preparing for another battle. “Not quite yet, NESP. That was just the appetizer.” He looked up at the altar in front of us, where some white-robed guy had his arms raised in front of a big purple heart. “Next up is the main course... this guy.”

Zan opened her eyes weakly. “Help… Hyness…”

The robed guy looked over his shoulder at us. “...Juh? What is this… interference?” I’m not sure about you, but everything about him screamed evil. His eerily calm tone of voice, the way he weirdly floated down the steps…

He looked down at Zan Partizanne. “You… You seem to be in my way.”

To our shock, he slapped Zan away with his left arm.

“Poyo!” I exclaimed. This wasn’t the first time I saw a bad guy hit another bad guy on purpose, but this Hyness guy took it to a whole new level. Zan was just trying to do her job, and she was doing it right!

“Well then…” Hyness glanced back at the purple heart. There was still a pretty big chunk missing from the top-left part of the heart. “It seems… we do not have enough energy… to revive our Dark Lord…” A Dark Lord? I wondered to myself who or what this Dark Lord was. Hyness returned to looking at us. “Must we… allow ourselves… to fall… into oblivion?”

I tilted my head in confusion. “Poyo?” I wasn’t sure if he was talking to us or to himself.

“No,” he suddenly said.

“No!” he said again, but louder.

“NO!” And louder.

Before we knew it, he went into crazy mode, screaming like some kind of demented freak. “No no no no no! NONONONONONONONONO! NOOOOO, I SAY!!!”

He started shaking his head and wildly waving his arms around like a madman as he ranted so fast that it was hard to listen to clearly. “We are the masters of a power driven to the far reaches of the universe, and we have but one desire! Can one such as you possibly fathom how dearly we have clung to this dream across the aeons? How could you! You couldn’t! Never ever ever! We who once face those who were in such fear of our power that they sealed us away and banished us…”

After that, I just gave up and watched him go on and on and on. Most of my friends were bored or confused as well, except for Gim, who was carefully listening to the lecture.

NESP yawned. “...You know what? I’m done with listening to this guy.” He held his hands out towards Hyness. “This is my chance to use a spell I’ve always wanted to utilize in a really important scenario such as this one!”

Gim looked at NESP with worry in his voice. “Uh, bro, this sounds risky. You sure about doing this, whatever you’re gonna do?”

NESP laughed. “This sort of thing is my kind's specialty. There's nothing to worry about! Now prepare yourselves!” In front of his hands, white psychic energy formed and morphed into the shape of the psychic eye that was on his hood.

“Depulso Hyness!”

And then, there was a bright flash.

“Ohh…” It took me a while to recover from the flash. As the world around me came back into focus, I was really confused. No scary spires, no dark purple heart, no outer space… I was no longer at the Divine Terminus! “Poyo?”

I looked around. There were big fluffy clouds everywhere, and the sky was nice and blue. Was I back in Dream Land? But this wasn’t the time to hang out at home. There was a wacky wizard to battle and prevent from awakening a Dark Lord!

I started running to find my Warp Star. But I didn’t move.

I looked down. I wasn’t standing on the ground. The ground was way below me, but something looked different about it. There wasn’t enough time for me to think about it, though, because gravity kicked in.

“AAAAAHHHH!”

THUD!

Chapter 11: Emergency Meeting (Kirby)

Discord clipped through the walls of Twilight’s castle while I thought about what just happened. Queen Chrysalis disguised herself as a pony who happened to be a robotic friend of mine in disguise, she infiltrated the castle and found him there, and she said something about warning someone before I inhaled her and got her out of the castle… I didn’t know why, but I felt like she was going to be back soon.

And if she did come back, I needed to fully gain the trust of the ponies. That way, we’d be able to work together to drive her back or even defeat her for good. But gaining their trust would be hard. Twilight and Applejack saw me inhale twice. Now they could be afraid that I may inhale them at any given moment.

Shaking my head, I returned inside the castle. But when I reached the library, nopony was there. “Poyo?” I looked around. No sign of anyone.

“Psst, down here!” A book on the ground opened, and it turned to a page with a drawing of Discord. Obviously, the drawing was Discord. “They’re discussing things in the map room.” He pointed at another door.

“Poyo!” I thanked Discord.

A few more doors later, and I made it to what looked like the most important room in Twilight’s castle. Twilight, Applejack, Spike, Gim, Roborygon, and Meloetta were all sitting in chairs around a huge crystal table.

The Equestrians, mainly Twilight, were trying to understand what the hay was going on. “Chrysalis was easily twice his size, if not three times! He shouldn’t have been able to just stuff her into his mouth!”

“Well, maybe he’s related to Pinkie Pie,” Applejack suggested. “Pinkie’s been able to do some pretty crazy stuff too, you know?”

“No, that couldn’t possibly be right. How could Kirby be related to Pinkie Pie if he isn’t even from our own planet?”

Meloetta turned around and saw me. With a smile, she waved at me. “Melemele!” She gestured for me to come to the table. “Mele!”

“Poyo!” I walked up and joined the group.

“Kirby’s back? Good.” Twilight used her magic to put me in the only seat left: one with a balloon symbol. “As you know, I have a bunch of questions. But I’m going to start by asking what I think is the most important one… How were you able to fit the entirety of Queen Chrysalis into your mouth and belly, and how are you still the same size?!”

The truth is, I really don’t know for sure how I can fit something much bigger than me into my mouth. I also don’t know how I stay the same size after eating something huge. But about Chrysalis… “Not eat queen.”

“Oh, ya didn’t eat Queen Chrysalis?” Applejack looked worried. “If you didn’t eat her, what did ya do to her?”

A snap was heard, then a camcorder appeared on the table. There was a note written on it: Want to know what happened to Queen Chrysalis? Watch the footage on this. --Discord

“Then let’s watch it!” Gim hit play on the camcorder, and the footage started rolling. We all gathered around to watch. “Actually, this screen is a bit too small. Roborygon, think you can connect to it and bring it up on your antenna?”

“That’s a good idea.” Roborygon put an arm on the camcorder, and his antenna made a hologram of the footage appear above the table. “A multipurpose robot such as myself isn’t complete without a hologram projector!”

We watched as I walked outside with Chrysalis tucked in my mouth. When Discord pointed out Everfree Forest, the ponies were in shock as I shot out Chrysalis like a cannonball.

“How did you do that?!” Twilight exclaimed, clearly on the verge of having a meltdown. “There’s no scientific way you could possibly blast her out with such force!”

Like with my inhale, I never really questioned it. I was born with that power, and I’ve chosen to accept it as a part of me.

Meloetta leaned towards Roborygon. “Melele?”

Roborygon shook his head. “No, Twilight would most likely pass out. Again. And since there’s still a chance for Chrysalis to strike back, we don’t want Twilight to pass out on us at such a crucial time as this.” He proceeded to ask Gim, “Do you think you can explain Kirby’s most well-known powers to Twilight in a way that she won’t go unconscious?”

“Okay, I’ll give it a shot. Let’s see…” Gim snapped his fingers. “Got it! Twilight, Kirby’s stomach is an important part of his anatomy, allowing him to use several of his unique powers. It functions not just as a stomach, but as a combination of a vacuum and a cannon.”

“Vacuum, and cannon…?” Twilight gave him an unconvinced look. “If his stomach does the inhaling and exhaling, then what use are his lungs?”

“Lungs?” Roborygon shrugged. “To be honest, nobody really knows whether or not Kirby even has lungs. There’s a lot that nobody knows about Kirby, not even me or the Star Warrior Meta Knight.”

The conversation started drifting away from me and towards Star Warriors in general, so I decided to stop listening. I looked over at Spike’s seat, but he wasn’t in it. He was near one of the doors, writing something on a piece of paper.

I walked over to Spike, curious about what he was writing. “Poyo?”

Spike looked over at me. “Hey, Kirby. I’m just writing a letter to Princess Celestia to tell her about the situation.” He wrapped up the letter and breathed green flames on it, turning it into smoke that blew away. “That’s how I send letters to the princess for Twilight. After reading it, she should send a letter back telling us what to do about what’s going on right now.”

“Oh.” Spike and I watched the conversation go on for a little while. Spike seemed like a pretty nice guy, but I wondered what he thought about me. I pointed at myself. “Poyo?”

Spike shrugged. “Who am I to judge you? All I know about you is that you came here from a planet called Pop Star, you can suck stuff up and spit stuff out hard, and apparently you can get powers from enemies. You beat Chrysalis, and she’s a bad guy, so that’s enough for me to trust you.”

I smiled. I was happy that he trusted me, kind of like when I trusted Marx when he told me to gather the power of the stars to call on the Galactic Nova to stop the fight between the sun and moon. Except this time, I wouldn’t betray or backstab the ponies. After all, I’m a hero just like them.

Suddenly, Spike looked queasy. BUUUURP! I ducked just in time to avoid a burst of flame that turned into another scroll. “That was some pretty quick thinking, Kirby. I almost roasted you when I got that letter! Let’s see…” He opened it up and looked at it. “Dear Spike, thank you very much for warning us about the possible return of Queen Chrysalis. From what you wrote, it appears she has a new ally. These newcomers to Equestria might know something about her acquaintance. Gather the bearers of harmony, this Kirby you speak of, and Kirby’s colleagues, then have them all come and see us in Canterlot Castle. We will discuss the situation there. Sincerely, Princess Celestia.” We looked back at the group, who were still trying to help Twilight wrap her head around me and my home planet. “The only thing is, how do we get their attention? Twilight’s known to hyperfocus a lot.”

Twilight was busy ranting about the healing food and some of the locals in Dream Land. “If Waddle Dees don’t have mouths, then how can they talk or even eat? Does the food just disappear into their faces or--” Whap! I threw the scroll at the back of Twilight’s head, and it landed on the table in front of her. “Oh, it’s a letter. I wonder if Celestia sent it.” She opened it up and began to read it, during which I high-fived Spike. “Spike, did you send a letter to the princess?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Spike answered. “While you were trying to figure out Kirby, I took it into my own claws to send a letter to Celestia and explain the situation with Chrysalis and Kirby and all.”

“Thanks for doing that for me, Spike.” Twilight continued to read. When she finished, she stood up. “Roborygon, are there any other friends of Kirby who are here in Equestria?”

“There is. One, to be precise.” Roborygon brought up a picture of Rocky, complete with his yellow color and hat. “Be on the lookout for this creature, a Rocky.”

“...Poyo!” I had an idea. I focused all my thoughts and feelings on the friendship I had with my helpers. I started giving off a pink, heart-shaped glow.

Even Roborygon was amazed. “I hadn’t considered that before! You can prompt your friends to do certain things by the power of the Friend Hearts! Could you be trying to use that power to call your team of friends to you?”

I nodded. “Poyo!”

“Smart move, Kirby! Looks like we won’t have to worry about finding Rocky.”

“Alright, then.” Twilight looked around at everyone. “Princess Celestia wants Kirby, his friends who came here to Equestria, and the bearers of harmony to come see her. We’ll try to figure out what’s going on and make sure Chrysalis doesn’t come back for quite some time.”

Gim pumped his fist. “Looks like it’s time for a team-gathering montage!”

First, we got Rarity from the Carousel Boutique. She made sure to hang up a “Closed” sign before she left.

Next came Pinkie Pie. She was super eager to get to know me, but that would have to wait until we actually set off for Canterlot.

Then came Fluttershy, who was in her cottage. She said she was coming to find me in Twilight’s castle, but she got discouraged by Rainbow Dash who told her that I could be a huge threat to Equestria’s safety.

And finally, Rainbow Dash. It took a lot of convincing, mainly because she was actually scared of me and didn’t know whether to trust my friends. She chose to trust my robot partner Gim and Meloetta because they helped figure out the imposter, but she immediately became angry when Roborygon revealed that he was Bright Fountain. She actually got angry at both him and me because he lied and she was still sure that I could have knocked out Twilight on purpose. It took Applejack’s honesty to convince her that I didn’t mean to cause Twilight to go unconscious, but she was still mad at Roborygon. For that, Rainbow Dash had to be convinced by one of Pinkie Pie’s insanely accurate “hunches” to stop thinking he’s bad or evil.